


The Adventures of Master Kaku and Blessed Bell

by Achariyth



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Adventure, Chinoiserie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-19 23:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4765547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achariyth/pseuds/Achariyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the fairy maids of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were struck with a mysterious illness, Meiling found master Seiga Kaku. Together they set out on a journey that will lead them throughout the lands of Gensokyo in search of the cure. A chinoiserie sequel to "All's Fair in Love and Thievery".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Mountain Sage**

"The Way that can be spoken of is not the real Way." –  _The Classic of the Way and Power_ , by the Old Master

* * *

As the morning sun baked the dirt of Youkai Mountain's crossroads into shingled clay, Meiling tugged at the neckline of her blouse and bade mercy goodbye. She committed the mortal sin of a sentry, leaving her post at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, to come to the crossroads. Not even black snake root and thirty pieces of silver had called up the devil's kith to haggle for the price of a boon.

Heaven and hell moved from their courses at a human's call. A  _youkai_ , however, was always on her own.

The guardswoman ripped open the top three laces of her green vest. As a slight breeze wicked the sweat from her skin, Meiling shuffled towards a solitary pine tree. Underneath its scant shade, she sat down and wound her scarlet tresses into a tight bun. She choked down a mouthful of warm water from a metal canteen. Meiling closed her eyes and basked in the relief.

"'The birds have vanished in the sky, and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains.'" Meiling Hong recited the words of the Immortal Poet, Li Po, and looked skyward to the volcano's summit. She shielded her eyes from the unrelenting glare.

The wind died away. With a sigh, Meiling stretched her legs and swayed to her feet. The  _youkai_  drifted across the arid crossroads to a post sprouting arrow signs like needles on a pine. Each sign pointed to a destination, straight as the  _tengu_  flew, from the Myouren Temple, to the Human Village, and the Moriya hamlet. A fairy had even pointed an arrow straight down to Hell. Hidden amid the signs, a thin red arrow pointed west-northwest to an unnamed mountain sage's home.

Singing to herself, Meiling followed the red sign down the road. When Meiling was still a child in the village of Chen, her mother had taught her to seek sages' wisdom whenever peasant cunning could not solve her problem. If anyone knew how to cure six lifeless fairy maids, the sage of Youkai Mountain would. Perhaps Remilia Scarlet would then forgive Meiling's absence.

The trail leveled off and branched at the foot of a granite boulder. One path led to the summit, and the second, to a forested valley. A sign on the face of the boulder pointed towards the sage's home; its arrow spun in circles like a weathervane in a windstorm.

Meiling closed her eyes and traced her fingers over the smooth sign. She suspected fairylight pranks, from the way looking at the sign made her eyes water. "I'm trying to help your sisters."

The arrow still spun.

She held her breath and waited. The wind bore no whispers or hushed giggles as it blew past, only the occasional chirp from nearby birds. She even circled the boulder twice, once from each direction, but saw no glimpse of shimmering fairy wings or rustling bushes. Either the fairies were uncharacteristically devious, or the spinning sign was some other mage's handiwork. But her absence from the Scarlet Devil Mansion must have been discovered by now, so she left the mystery to others.

Meiling brushed her hands through the road dust and clapped her hands. After testing her grip on the rock face, she hauled herself up the fissure. The guardswoman stood atop the boulder and shielded her eyes from the sun. Out in the valley, a shingled courtyard house poked out of its forest shroud. Even if the sage lived elsewhere, perhaps the occupants could point Meiling in the right direction. Up on the mountain, however, she saw only forest switchbacks and striated cliffs pockmarked by the wind.

Her course set, Meiling knelt by the fissure and lowered herself over the side. As her foot caught hold of a narrow outcrop, the guardswoman looked up at the mountain once more and gasped. One of the pockmarks was a perfect block arch planed into the cliff face, a sight she had last seen in her homeland of China. She climbed down the crack and set off toward the summit.

* * *

Calling a stone  _yaodong_  home a cave dwelling glossed over the difference between a cave and a proper home carved into the rock. Each blow that chiseled out a  _yaodong_  was chosen for harmony with the five elements, for consideration of the flows of qi, and for the comfort and protection of its family. In her travels through China's northern provinces, Meiling had seen entire hills terraced with the homes until the earthen rises resembled step pyramids. She longed to explore the hillside homes, but she had never stopped as her caravans rolled past. A guard never left her post.

Well, almost never.

Meiling pushed her way through the red doors of the stone arch. "May Heaven's blessing shower upon us all."

She entered the dim chamber illuminated only by two candles on either side of a lotus flower lamp. As her cheeks burned, Meiling backed out underneath the lintel and slid her feet out of her shoes. A cave house within Youkai Mountain made a powerful holy place to the Taoist god enshrined within. She could not afford to carelessly provoke divine displeasure.

"Compassion to all." Meiling clasped her hands together and bowed to the altar. She reentered the shrine room and sought the image of the god she needed to appease. No icon sat behind the sacred lotus lamp. The  _yaodong's_  altar venerated the Tao alone.

With a sigh of relief, Meiling propped the red doors open. Completing the altar on her left stood three cups and two sets of five dishes representing  _yin_ ,  _yang_ , and the five elements. On her right, a single red shelf held three tarnished coins atop a dog-eared copy of the  _Classic of Change_ , a divination manual. The temptation to cast the coins welled within her. She had left her post, for which she would face consequences. Perhaps the coins might tell her what those might be. However, Meiling had never mastered divination. Perhaps she could impress upon the home owner for a reading.

She searched the walls for the displayed diploma that should be present in a Chinese sage's home. Surely a sage would have proof of his wisdom, displayed at a young age at the mandarin examinations for philosophy. But no gold or silver certificate graced the wall. At best, a lesser ascetic lived in the shrine.

The guardswoman drifted back to the altar. The fruit and rice offerings set before the lotus lamp were still fresh. The shrine's attendant had to be near, perhaps in another  _yaodong_  close by. With a final bow, Meiling left the shrine room. Sitting beneath the stone lintel, she fussed with the buckles of her shoes.

"'Heaven and earth are my roof and walls, and the rooms of my house are my clothes,'" a woman proclaimed.

Meiling pivoted around. In the center of the  _yaodong's_  chamber, a Chinese woman in a teal dress and a white vest glowered at her. Unlike the expected crone, the woman instead reminded Meiling of an indignant younger cousin.

"'Why are you in my pants?'" the slight woman demanded. She staggered backwards as Meiling threw her arms around her neck.

* * *

- _My surname is Hong, and my personal name is Meiling, but everyone in my home village calls me Blessed Bell, or just Bell for short_.- Meiling followed her hostess through a hole in the shrine room's granite wall into a sparse dining room. The Chinese  _youkai_  watched the hermit puzzle over her accent. With precise enunciation, Meiling repeated her introduction in Cantonese.

The sage ushered her guest towards the seat of honor at a red lacquered table. - _My surname is Wu, my given name in Qing'e, and there is a slight flaw in my character_.- She spoke in a clipped version of scholarly Middle Chinese that sounded odd yet regal to Meiling's ear. "Perhaps we should stick to Japanese."

Shrugging, Meiling accepted a cup of green tea. "I can prattle away in seven languages." She smiled as she took a sip. "Even in English," she said in that strange tongue.

"I figured as much." Master Wu laughed and sat at the head of the dining table. Nursing her own cup of tea, she smiled. "I am Seiga Kaku in this land. Do they call you Misuzu Kurenai?"

"I have never needed to translate my name into another language, no matter where I have traveled." Meiling beamed as she spoke. Remilia forbade it, as any trace of the exotic made it easier to draw in the vampiress's prey.

"Then you must let me call you Bell." Master Kaku set aside her cup and fiddled with a hairpin. "So, why did you seek me out?"

Meiling nodded, set her cup down, and drew in a deep breath. "The harmony of Nature is disrupted."

"That can't be the true reason. You didn't know that I was a Taoist until you found my altar." Master Kaku tapped the hairpin against her lips. "Why didn't you seek a shrinemaiden?"

Meiling hid her grimace behind a sip of tea. "They only care when humans are affected."

"So it's a  _youkai_  matter." Master Kaku fished out six coins from a belt purse. She cast the coins onto a platter, and, upon examination, pursed her lips. "No matter how you try to fix things yourself, the shrinemaidens will be involved in the end."

"Over six comatose fairies?" Meiling balled her fists and shook her head. "I'm trying to save them, not seal them away."

The mountain sage held up her hand and threw the coins again. Frowning, she stood and reached towards a nearby shelf for a volume of the  _Classic of Change_. Her eyes flashed as she consulted the ancient wisdom. The two coin throws each made a trigram, and the two trigrams formed a hexagram corresponding to a specific fortune in the  _Classic of Change_. Sighing, Master Kaku clapped the book shut and plucked the coins from the tabletop. "Please start from the beginning."

Meiling poured forth her worries, starting with the six stricken fairies resting in Remilia's sitting room. By the time she admitted to abandoning her duties, Master Kaku's eyes had glazed over. The guardswoman stammered and blushed as the Azurine Hermit fell from her chair. "Forgive me, but I rarely have the opportunity to speak freely."

"You're not the first to unburden her soul to me." Master Kaku rubbed her hip before she swayed to her feet. "As for the fairies, has anyone moved them a step further along in their cycle of rebirth?" She dragged a finger across her throat.

Meiling stared at her hostess, aghast. "Of course not. They're practically children."

"They are still  _youkai_. Most doctors won't waste medicine on a sick fairy, not when rebirth erases so many hurts."

"I wish they would." Meiling slapped her hands against the table and jumped to her feet. "I'm a  _youkai_ ; I don't want to feel the cold kiss of steel when I'm hurt. What if I don't come back? What if they don't come back?"

"A wise choice." Master Kaku bade Meiling to sit back down. "They might not have the strength to return."

Meiling sat down, a grimace marring her lips. Patchouli had made the same warning when Sakuya's knives first came out. "Will you help them?"

Master Kaku cast the coins one last time and watched them spin to a stop. Nodding, she scooped up the coins and stood. "My assistant will mind the altar in my absence."

Meiling bowed her head. "Thank you."

The Azurine Hermit drifted over to an end table. Trading the coins for a flask, she daubed the essential oil within on her arms. She returned to the table with an inkstone and paper in hand. "I must, however, leave detailed instructions before we leave."

* * *

As the noon sun passed behind a cloud, Meiling threw open the doors of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She froze, a gasp escaping her lips. With every blink of her eyes, the hallways changed, dividing and combining in a dizzying show of magic. Meiling closed her eyes and steadied herself against the doorway.

Even during the best of times, navigating through the shifting halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion proved to be a test. Corridors shrunk, lengthened, and even vanished as Sakuya Izayoi's attention to her abilities over time and space wavered. Yet with enough time, Meiling could usually manage to find her way through the mansion. Now, the guardswoman wondered if she needed a compass and a ball of thread.

"I am unsure if this is marvelous or diabolical." Master Kaku clung to Meiling's shoulders.

With her eyes still clenched shut, the guardswoman drew herself to her full height. "Sakuya!"

"Where were you?" a dulcet voice answered.

Meiling opened her eyes. A silver-haired maid in wilted lace stood in the center of the foyer. Around her, the hallways remained fixed, as did Sakuya's placid mask of elegance. Meiling waited for a message relayed from the maid's master. "I brought help."

Master Kaku stepped out of Meiling's shadow. "My surname is Kaku, my personal name is Seiga, and there is a slight flaw in my character." She slapped a hairpin as thick as a chisel against her palm like a closed fan.

Sakuya curtsied, greeting her guest with a strained smile. "Welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I hope your remedies are better than your sermons."

Master Kaku tapped the point of her hairpin to her lips. "I almost convinced you to follow the Way."

"Indeed." Behind Sakuya, the hallway creaked. "Again, may your cures prove to be more potent than your words. Oh, and Meiling, please let me know before you leave the mansion next time."

Meiling drew in a deep breath. "I did not quit my post." Her words rang hollow in her ears.

"I didn't say you did. But if you ended up like those poor fairies and we couldn't find you, the Mistress-" For once, Sakuya's perfect grace faltered. A new doorway appeared in the foyer and vanished a moment later. "Mistress Remilia will be pleased to see you. Or as pleased as anyone can be in these circumstances."

"What might those be?" Master Seiga asked.

Sakuya flashed Meiling a longsuffering glare. She beckoned for her guests to follow her into the corridor maze. "Didn't Meiling tell you?"

Meiling chased after Sakuya. "Did you want me to cloud Master Kaku's wisdom with my ignorance?"

"'The Way that can be spoken of is not the real Way.' So while I appreciate the gesture, let there be no more secrets between us." Master Kaku threw her arms around Sakuya's shoulders. "Bell is an open book, but you? Your secrets have secrets. I like you."

Sakuya shrugged out of Master Kaku's grasp and vanished, reappearing three meters in front of Meiling. "Be careful what you touch. Patchouli ordered for silver to be strung throughout the mansion."

"It's too early to be in mourning-" Master Kaku began.

The maid held up a hand adorned with gleaming rings and mirror-polished bracelets. "Silver also wards off evil."

"Does it work?" Meiling asked.

"Have you seen the Mistress around?" Sakuya coughed and assumed her placid elegance once more. She vanished again, this time appearing in front of a set of tall double doors.

The doors opened into a vast library, where towering bookshelves wound around a central reading enclave like the hedges of an ancient maze. Compared to the corridors outside, which had resumed their constant motion, the path to the center was straightforward, yet Sakuya still led them through the perfumed paths. A silk-winged fairy maid with ruby lips and her blond hair tied in a bun slipped out from the shelves, sweeping behind them.

"The fairies are resting in another room," Sakuya led them through a set of shelves devoted to love poetry from around the world. "But Patchouli is researching a cure in here."

Nine tables filled the enclave, arrayed in a square. A tangled hedge of glass alembics, rubber piping, and metal rods ringed the outer desks, filled with eye searing flame, hissing steam, and a pungent cloud of sulfur and perfume. Open books covered every square centimeter of the one table not given over to the alchemist's art. A young woman in a lavender sundress flittered between books like a frustrated bee, tugging at her hair in frustration. Meiling was surprised, Patchouli Knowledge rarely wore anything other than heavy cotton pajamas.

"…everything in its place and a place for everything." Patchouli spun in a circle before she flopped into a nearby chair. "Not only must I contend with a five hundred year old system of the world, I must find a place in the Great Chain of Being for creatures unknown to Aristotle using only earth, air, water, and fire." The librarian massaged her temples and stared up at the sunlight in the ceiling.

Meiling spun around, searching for Sakuya, but the head maid vanished as soon as Patchouli's rant turned towards philosophy. Unfortunately, she lacked the decency to take the guardswoman with her. As Patchouli caught her breath, Meiling ducked underneath the center table and shuddered in her sanctuary.

Master Kaku dragged a chair away from the alchemical maze, spilling thin tomes of manga in her wake. At the first thump against the floor, the fairy maid dropped her broom and scurried over. After brushing the seat, Master Kaku reclined in the chair. "Why have you departed from the established Way?"

After a coughing fit, Patchouli found her voice. "Because the  _wu xing_   _chrysopoeia_  of five elements doesn't match what I am seeing."

Sliding out from under the table, Meiling reached for the nearest volume of manga on the floor. The blond fairy maid stooped for the book, but pulled away as her hand brushed against Meiling's. The guardswoman put a finger to her lips and waved the fairy away. With the manga volume in hand, Meiling crept back into her hiding place.

Master Kaku slid her chair next to Patchouli's but did not sit down. "How can anyone describe the world with just four elements?"

"To begin, earth, water, air, and fire still oppose and change into each other, just like in the classics of Taoist alchemy." Patchouli stabbed her finger against an open tome. "However, the Elizabethan alchemists half a world away added balance to our traditional framework.

"Every object and being in the universe has its own perfect ratio of the four elements. As long as the elements are balanced to match this ideal, there is longevity, health, and strength. To disrupt this balance is to cause disease, yet shifting the ratio also allows an alchemist to transmute the nature of a substance, such as lead into gold. Fortunately, an excess of any particular element can be diagnosed by a unique set of symptoms.

"Additionally, there is hierarchy. First earth, then water, air, and fire at the top. But at the perfect moment of balance, one might also find light, which is treated in the system as a divine fire. The Chain of Being echoes this relationship, with humans,  _youkai_ , devils, angels, and gods following the ranks of the elements. The world is ordered, with everything in its place, and a place for everything."

Meiling leafed through the manga and wished for earplugs. As a guardswoman, however, she still kept an ear on her surroundings. At least she could distract herself with the tawdry "secrets of the earth spider" tabloid tale, unlike the poor fairy stranded in the middle of the lecture, overloaded with books.

"That lacks the elegant paradoxes of the Way." Master Kaku said. "Why did you embrace this system of the world?"

"Unlike  _wu xing_  alchemy, it fits the events. I have six unconscious fairies, creatures of fire, in a state of torpor, which signifies a significant excess of water." Patchouli paced a circuit around the central table. "What I don't know is what caused that imbalance."

"Or a cure." Master Kaku drifted over to the far side of the library's glassware maze and stared into an unheated crucible filled with quicksilver liquid. "You should stay away from cinnabar experiments. Mercury never does anyone any good."

Patchouli spun around. "But alchemy-"

"-isn't why I've lived for 1500 years in the full bloom of beauty. And, from the pallor of your skin, you need to take a kernel of sulfur with a spoonful of honey every day. That is, if you don't want the mercury tremors." Master Kaku jerked like a puppet pulled into an awkward jig. She examined the librarian through slitted eyes. "However, it might be too late."

As the air chilled between the rival alchemists, Meiling closed her book and poked her head out from under the table.

"What did you say your discipline was?" Patchouli walked around the ring of alchemical distilleries and snuffed out the gas burners. Without waiting for a command, the blond fairy maid extinguished the burners within her reach.

"Taoist philosophy." Master Kaku ran her hand along a test tube rack filled with stoppered vials of a honey elixir.

Patchouli's lips twisted into a sneer. "We're shorthanded, so we cannot spare a servant with wine and a shovel to follow you around. You'll need to bury yourself if you die."

Meiling leapt to her feet, slamming into the table with a rattle of glass. Rubbing the knot on her head, she stepped out of her hiding place. "Patchouli-" she scolded.

Master Kaku held up a hand. "'Those who speak do not know.' Although I am pleased that your studies do not lack in the classics." She slipped her hand into a vest pocket. "The writings of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove is an odd choice, unless you're one of those girls who would rather read about passion than experience it."

Patchouli glowed scarlet as she flung test tubes into a drying oven. "Didn't you flee from your marriage bed?" She slammed the metal door and whirled around, facing Master Kaku with a spellcard in her hand. "Yet you dare call me frigid."

The Azurine Hermit pulled her chisel-point hairpin free from her coiffure. "You should spend more of your time out of the library. A little experience will teach you not to trust everything you read."

The spellcard glowed in Patchouli's hand. "Oh, then your husband left you? Was it for another woman or to rid himself of a shrew?"

Surging forward Meiling grabbed hold of the librarian's wrist and jerked it overhead. The activated spellcard fell from Patchouli's hand, fizzling into a spray of golden dodecahedral crystals. "Master Kaku's our guest!"

"Your guest, not mine." Patchouli ripped her arm free from Meiling's grasp. Rubbing her wrist, she turned on the guardswoman. "I thought you of all people would have trusted me to find a cure."

"I do." Meiling remained between the alchemist and the sage.

"Yet you searched out another alchemist." Patchouli's voice dropped into a chill whisper as her eyes bored into Meiling's.

A veteran of countless staredowns around the world, Meiling held her ground. "The rules of hospitality forbid unprovoked spellcard attacks."

"She started it." Patchouli planted her hand on her hip and glared past Meiling at Master Kaku.

"That doesn't justify using your Philosopher's Stone on her."

A glimmer at the edge of Meiling's vision caught her attention. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Master Kaku hold a golden crystal up to the light. The sage turned the crystal in her hand and watched the light play upon the facets. Meiling shook her head; Patchouli's spent _danmaku_  might shine like gold, but it was worth less than pyrite.

Master Kaku bowed. "My apologies, Master Alchemist. I misspoke earlier. Your devotion to your studies has not been misplaced." As she stood, her fingers brushed against her vest.

Patchouli preened at the praise. "It's a work in process. The purity still isn't where it should be."

"I wondered why you still sought a cure since you have the reagents for the Elixir of Life." Master Kaku watched as the fairy maid swept up the last of the Philosopher's Stone crystals. "Alas, your experiment isn't the only thing that lacks virtue here."

Patchouli glowed scarlet, but, after one glance at Meiling, she bit her tongue and counted until the color drained away. "Follow me. Let's see if you can do better."

* * *

For once, it was not Patchouli's grousing that set Meiling's teeth on edge as the librarian led her, Master Kaku, and the fairy with spider silk wings through the mansion's halls. Instead, an electric charge had settled on the guardswoman's skin like a constant itch, and the further she walked along the wainscoted corridor, the more pressing grew the need to scratch furrows into her arms.

The guardswoman methodically scanned the hallway, near to far and left to right. Unlike the rest of the mansion's walkways, the walls stood motionless, lined with silver rounds tacking Sakuya's shifting hold over time and space into place. Atop the molded paneling sat silver coins, spaced half a meter apart and paired between the two walls. Meiling recognized the silver as Spanish eight  _real_  coins – the famous "pieces of eight" – taken from the mansion's vaults. A glint above her caught her eye. Another set of coins was tacked to the ceiling, one near each corner, completing an arch of silver  _reales_  repeated throughout the hall.

For a moment, Meiling wondered if the electric ripple across her skin was due to the improvised ward against evil or the realization that keeping the unsecured riches safe was now her duty. She glanced over at Patchouli and Master Kaku, who both passed through the hall unaffected.

"Meiling!"

Gritting her teeth, the guardswoman froze. Searching out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a nook breaking the pattern of the coins. Inside, a cat-eyed doll in pink uncurled from a rocking chair and glided towards her.

"You know better than to leave without permission." Remilia's bat wings spread wide like a billowing black cloak. The child vampire perked up, flashing her fangs. "But you did bring me a snack. I've been a mite peckish since helping Sakuya, so let's not wait." She grabbed ahold of Master Kaku's hand, baring the woman's slender wrist.

The mountain hermit shuddered and turned her head away.

"Now, don't you worry. This won't hurt you a bit, and after a quick pint, Sakuya will have a cushion and a glass of orange juice waiting for you." Raising Master Kaku's wrist to her lips, Remilia opened her mouth wide. The tips of the vampiress's fangs pressed against the sage's skin. Hissing, Remilia recoiled away from the hermit and leapt into Meiling's arms. "Lemon and garlic. That's not fair," she wailed, huddling against her guard.

Laughing, Master Kaku doubled over and rubbed her wrist. "I've dealt with beings like you before."

Remilia rubbed her lips. "I'm a European vampire. Save for my sister, there are no other beings like me in Japan."

"How unfortunate for me, then. Most blood drinkers in Japan would consider a splash of lemon and garlic to be marinade, not repellent."

Remilia squirmed in Meiling's arms until she stared into the guardswoman's eyes. "I've decided that I'm still mad at you."

Meiling lowered her eyes. "I-" An actinic flash and a shrill shriek cut her off.

Wide-eyed and sucking on her finger, the blond fairy maid trembled in the middle of the hall. She pointed to a wisp of smoke rising from a piece of eight. Its glimmer dulled, leaving a vivid rainbow patina.

"Careful now. Look but don't touch," Remilia chided over her shoulder. Despite the vampiress's confident air, she still drew her wings closer to her body.

Meiling rushed over to the newly tarnished coin and spread her arms wide. "Enchanted silver?"

Patchouli tried to push her way past Meiling. "Now you know why Sakuya set these coins along the wall instead of Koakuma. Even dross holds power."

"So that is normal?" the maid asked from within Meiling's shadow.

"As much as anything is around here." Remilia slipped out of Meiling's arms and skipped ahead of the group. She beckoned for them to follow.

Meiling waited for the maid and Patchouli to leave the rainbow tarnished coin. "Master Kaku?"

The Azurine Hermit stood in front of a sparkling silver  _real_ and pressed her finger against the coin. The  _real_  still gleamed in the light. Master Kaku tapped her hairpin against her lips and stared at the maid. "But there is a slight flaw in my character."

"Master Kaku, please, you don't want to be left behind."

The Azurine Hermit pulled her gaze away from the blond fairy. "Forgive me my distraction." She lifted her finger from the polished real and set off with Meiling after the vampiress.

They caught up to Remilia and Patchouli just after Remilia's still rocking chair. Continuing down the hall, the five women passed under a silver wire dreamcatcher hung from the ceiling like a web. While the maid cooed at the handiwork overhead, they pushed their way into a standing wall of heat. Ignoring the rivulet of sweat in her eye, Meiling loosened the laces of her vest and rolled up her sleeves. Patchouli's sudden fondness for sundresses now made sense. Alas, a guard must always remain in uniform.

"So you're trying to sweat out the excess water. Why not use a diuretic instead?" Unlike Meiling, Master Kaku had not wilted in the oven. The Azurine Hermit waved a paper fan. Meiling eased closer, until the fan took the edge off the swelter.

"We've managed to get them to swallow a hibiscus tisane sweetened with honey." Patchouli slid the silver web away from the doorframe. "The dry heat is to restore their fire."

"Did you have to turn half the mansion into a furnace?" Remilia's wings wilted, but the vampiress marched on. "Flandre's complaining, although not so as much as when Meiling went missing."

"I'm sorry." Meiling bowed, swaying as she fought off a swoon. "I went for help."

Remilia walked on, unmindful of Meiling's words.

* * *

Like a picture-perfect copy of her silent sisters sleeping in the parlor room around her, the fairy maid rested atop a mountain of cushions, wrapped in her moonlight wings. For a moment, Meiling thought the sleeping girl was a lace-wrapped doll cast in porcelain, with her ruby lips, alabaster skin, and jet princess-cut hair, but the rise and fall of the fairy's chest belied the illusion.

Bowing her head, Master Kaku knelt next to the fairy. "A perfect little fairy from the Palace of the Moon."

"I think Diao Chan was older when she earned that praise." Meiling lifted a silk sheet from the foot of the cushions and tucked the fairy into her bed. The guardswoman flashed a reassuring smile at the worried maids crowded around the open parlor door.

"Who?"

"The songstress who set Lu Bu and Dong Zhou against each other. From  _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms?_ Our version of Kaguya?" Meiling's face fell as Master Kaku shook her head.

"Surely any true Chinese sage would recognize the name of one of the Four Beauties." Patchouli knelt behind a potbelly stove and, protected by thick canvas gloves, the librarian shoved firewood into the cast iron firepot. Her words dripped with cloying venom. "But I am not surprised you don't recognize her. They used to forbid the treacherous from reading  _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms_  lest the book give them ideas."

Master Kaku shrugged. "I'm still catching up on the teachings of the Celestial Masters that were published while I slept."

"So you're not a real sage?" Patchouli slammed the stove's feed door and wiped her brow. Bright yellow flame danced between the slats in the stove, and every crackle of burning wood drove the temperature higher.

Meiling closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. But before she could speak, Sakuya appeared in the center of the room. "Take it outside, you two. Berry and her sisters need their rest," said the Head Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"I just wanted to be sure of her credentials," Patchouli simpered. She gestured towards the sickbeds. "May I treat my patients now?"

Master Kaku closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Compassion to all." She held out her hand in invocation.

"Fine. Remember, their hospice is my charge." As Sakuya's mask of serenity faltered, her image flickered. Her perfect elegance remained unmarred as she reappeared, holding a tea tray in her hands. The air filled with the bouquet of floral potpourri. "So if you continue to fight like Kaguya and Mokou, I will cool your heads in the Misty Lake."

Patchouli rolled her eyes. She took her station by a nightstand covered in brown glass bottles. Consulting a notebook, she poured powders from three bottles into a pestle. Patchouli ground the powders together with a mortar, compounding the master alchemist's latest medicine.

Meiling propped pillows underneath Berry's head. "I apologize, Master Kaku, I don't know what's gotten into Patchouli."

"'The words of the wise are as goads, driven by one shepherd.''" Master Kaku pressed two fingers against her patient's neck and counted. She shook her head and whispered, "So weak."

"Which master said that?"

The Azurine Hermit held up her hand and completed her count. Sitting back on her heels, she turned toward Meiling. "I overheard a Nestorian say it before I was sealed inside the mountain."

With a growing murmur, the crowd of fairy maids at the door parted. Remilia bobbed her way into the parlor, carrying a swaying stack of linen in her arms.

"Young Mistress, you must allow me to do my job." Sakuya cast a moue as she dribbled a spoonful of tea into a fairy's mouth.

Unaffected by the swelter, Remilia shrugged and dropped the linen sheets on the floor. "I want to help."

While Sakuya scolded her mistress about the proper forms of polite society, Meiling made her rounds through the room, propping up the fairies in their beds. Master Kaku stayed by Berry's side and checked the fairy maid's vital signs. All the while, the low grinding from Patchouli's mortar and pestle continued.

"How long have they been like this?" the sage asked.

"I found them passed out on the floor early this morning." Sakuya patted a fallen fairy's face with a hand towel.

"Has anyone else fallen sick?" Master Kaku placed her wrist on Berry's forehead.

Sakuya cast a glance towards the door. A sunflower fairy in a ruffled apron shook her head.

"It's not a plague." Remilia tapped her nose before baring her fangs. "I'd smell it on their breath if it were."

The low grinding from Patchouli's mortar and pestle stopped. "Before you ask, it's not a curse either. No one can hide magic from me." With a smile, Master Kaku fiddled with her hairpin.

Meiling pursed her lips. "That means something in the room made them sick," she thought out loud.

"We searched the room while you were gone." Sakuya flickered once more, her tea cup now atop of the stove.

"Another set of eyes might help." Meiling flashed a wan smile. After a bow, the guardswoman circled the walls of the parlor. Her eyes spared neither nook nor cranny along her path, but she could not tell which of the collected curios might be the culprit.

Master Kaku stood, tapping her hairpin to her lips. The sage towered over Berry's bed, her eyes darting between the stricken fairy and the maids huddled in the hallway. She whirled about and strutted to the parlor door. The fairy maids parted from the hermit's path, but Master Kaku caught one by the wrist. The sage studied the doll of a fairy, with her daisy petal wings, pale face, and pink lips unstained by gloss. A flush of rose seeped into the girl's cheeks.

Try as Meiling might, she could not see the fairy as anyone other than another of the puckish girls dolled up in lace who had adopted her as their older sister. While she loved the ancient tales of Judge Di, her talents had not set her upon the path of the detective. On the other hand, the guardswoman would spot instantly if a fairy tried to secret away a dagger or, more likely for Gensokyo, a deck of spellcards.

Master Kaku held her hairpin against her lips. "Why aren't you wearing lipstick?" She released the maid. Backing away from the sage, the fairy pleaded with Sakuya.

"Summer is dressed in the proper uniform for a maid of the mansion, without makeup." Sakuya dismissed the fairy maid with a wave of her hand. Trailing a faint glimmer of fairylight, Summer fled to the safety of her sisters.

"Then why do some wear lipstick?"

Coughing, Sakuya covered her lips with her hand. "The head maid is given certain privileges to balance out her greater responsibilities-"

"Not you. Them." Master Kaku pointed at the six maids stretched out on the cushions. Each girl's lips bore an identical shade of ruby gloss.

"If a girl exhibits a demure touch with brush, blush, and gloss, I make Sakuya look the other way," Remilia said.

Sakuya shook her head. "Most of them use makeup the same way Flandre uses crayons."

Meiling bit back a snicker. The last time Sakuya tried to educate her staff on cosmetics, the class ended with a dozen fairies with faces painted like  _luchadora_  masks. Clinging to the last scarlet scraps of her elegance, Sakuya marched into the wine cellar and locked herself inside. After Meiling forced the door open, she carried the soused maid out from her fortress of empty bottles and tucked her into bed. Perhaps she should coax Sakuya into giving another class.

Master Kaku looked around the parlor, tapping her hairpin against her lips. "Bell." The sage beckoned to Meiling. "Please follow me."

"I thought you worked for me." With a pout, Remilia cast a glare at her guardswoman. Only Meiling's martial discipline kept her from withering under the vampiress's cat-eyed stare.

"If you could spare Bell for a moment, I need a second set of eyes and everyone else is busy." Master Kaku pointed to Berry's ruby lips. "Remember that shade and let me know if you see it again."

Remilia bristled as the sage walked out of the parlor. "You're not going without me." She darted through the doorway with Sakuya on her heels.

With a shrug, Meiling followed Remilia out into the hallway. The vampires spoke reassurances to the skittish platoon of fairy maids while Master Kaku and Sakuya searched each girl for a trace of red. Meiling trailed in their wake, keeping an eye for any flash of ruby amidst the sea of gloss, ribbons, and lace. But when the impromptu inspection ended back inside the parlor, Meiling had yet to see a bold red. Even Sakuya preferred a subtle pink. As the inspection party dispersed, the guardswoman caught the sage's eye and shook her head.

"Please take a sample of lipstick from each of the ill girls and find the applicator they used." Master Kaku washed her hands in a basin by the door. "Master Alchemist, I must request to use your workspace and your solvents."

* * *

Hidden within a small corner nook of the mansion's library, Patchouli, Remilia, and Master Kaku huddled over a workbench. Seven smears of lipstick, one from each stricken fairy and one from the applicator they had shared, each filled their own test tube in a metal stand. As Master Kaku heated the rack of glass, Meiling and Sakuya hugged the wall and watched while the wax dripped inside. The mountain sage added drop by drop a rainbow of solvents to the samples. Three of the vials fizzled and turned into clear fluid. A fourth turned into a blue-green tar that burped once and settled. But when Master Kaku applied heat from the gas burner in her hand, the test tube belched, painting the ceiling with a splatter of boiling blue sludge.

Remilia shrieked as the foulness plopped down on the floor. "What are you doing?"

"Hold this." Master Kaku shoved another test tube into Remilia's hand. The liquid inside sparked once, twice, and then in a constant storm until the bulb glowed like a second sun. The vampiress blanched as the glass charred in her hand.

Silver and blue blurred around Remilia, and the eye searing tube reappeared, smoldering away in the test rack. The vampiress leapt away, shaking her hand as though she had been scalded. Sakuya scooped the young girl in her arms, casting a venomous glare at Master Kaku.

"Please tell me that you are going to clean that up," Sakuya said.

Master Kaku held up her hand as Patchouli poured the last solvents into the final two tubes. Both filled with needle black crystals. The Azurine Hermit tapped each set on its own circle of white paper and poured a clear oil over each. One washed away into a puddle, but the last sample turned the crystals a noxious bile green.

" _Ku_  poison." The Azurine Hermit soaked up the alchemical mess with paper. "Wash the fairies' lips and do not let a single drop into their mouths, or you will complete the assassin's work."

At the word "assassin", Meiling leapt in front of Remilia and Sakuya, shielding them from the worktable with her body. "Remilia, we must take you some place safe."

"Why would someone be so foolish?" The child vampire trembled in Sakuya's arms. She slipped away from her maid, and growled through bared fangs. "I'm a vampire, not mere meat. Poisons never work on me. Must I constantly remind everyone what garlic and stakes are for?" She clenched her fists, and Meiling shrank away from the growing tantrum.

"I'll ask the Moriya shrine to play  _Interview with a Vampire_  at their theater again," Sakuya said.

"Dye my dresses red, for I hunt tonight." Remilia licked her lips and laughed as she shook her fist at the sky.

"Very well, Young Mistress, I shall warn Reimu as well."

Remilia faltered. "This is well within the bounds set by our understanding-"

"She's in seclusion for ritual purification." Using a wooden dowel, Patchouli swept the solutions, glass and all, into a lead-lined waste bin. "Marisa's been complaining about it down in the village."

Remilia crushed Meiling in a hug and twirled out of the room, laughing.

Sakuya's shoulders slumped. "I should go with her, to keep her out of trouble. But first, what is  _ku_  poison?"

"The guards back home tell stories of it." Meiling clasped her arms behind her back. "It is said to have been used for two thousand years. The old guards back home tell stories of an old buddy of a friend of a pal who knew someone who died of the poison's wasting sleep. I always thought  _ku_  poison was just a fairy tale."

"Oh, it's real. I've actually used it once or twice," Master Kaku eyed the silver that flashed in Sakuya's hand. "I have no quarrel with your young mistress; some of my misguided attempts to make elixirs of life required  _ku_  poison as a solute. I assure you, I am a thousand years removed from my last aliquot."

A child's cackle pealed from the library. Sakuya inched towards the shelves. "That doesn't tell me what it is. Animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

"I never made it myself." The sage caught her breath as Sakuya vanished without warning. She turned to Meiling. "Bell, do you ever get used to that?"

A splintering crash cut her off. Wide eyed, Patchouli sprinted into the maze of bookshelves. Meiling took off after the librarian, weaving between bookracks until she rounded the corner to the Youkai Mountain  _tengu_  periodicals section. With a small hop, she stopped in front of the mountain of books, broadsheets, and broken shelves spilled out across the ground.

Patchouli stumbled to a stop and doubled over, wheezing as she clung to the nearest shelf. Tears welled in the librarian's eyes. "Koakuma!"

"It wasn't my fault," a clear soprano called out from above.

Meiling looked up and backed into a bookshelf. At the apex of the shelves, the blond silk-winged fairy dangled from a wooden rolling ladder by only one arm. Clutching a tome tight against her chest, the maid kicked out, knocking over a three-volume box set as her stocking feet tried to find purchase on the ladder.

As the books fell, Patchouli squealed and rushed underneath them. Catching the set, she tumbled into the shelf and slid to the floor. A coughing fit wracked her body.

"Don't forget to take a spoonful of sulfur and honey every day," Master Kaku said as she rounded the corner.

Meiling rushed forward and braced the ladder with her body. "Drop the book."

The fairy called out, "But Miss Patchouli-"

In the corner of Meiling's eye, the librarian waved her hand. The guardswoman said, "It's fine." She looked up, stepped away from the ladder, and caught the book in her arms. Planting her feet, Meiling braced herself against the ladder.

Master Kaku tapped her hairpin against her lips as the fairy reached out and pulled herself onto the ladder. "The poor dear forgot she could fly."

Patchouli swayed to her feet. "I'll take that." She held out her hand towards Meiling. The guardswoman looked down and handed over the collection of Golden Room legends. Patchouli dusted off the cover and shelved the tome. "Thank you."

A whiff of brimstone filled the air as a winged demoness in business attire appeared at Patchouli's side. She glanced at the mess on the floor and hissed. "What happened here?" She spotted the blond maid stepping off the ladder and made a moue of disgust. "I should have known. What did you do now, Silk?"

The maid wheeled around at her name and met Koakuma's eyes. "This wasn't my fault."

"Whatever. Just help me clean this up."

"Make sure you take inventory." Patchouli pointed at a torn page. "Give me a list of every book that needs a new cover or a new page."

Kneeling, Meiling shook free a plank from the pile of books, and set it aside

Patchouli grabbed the Chinese  _youkai's_  shoulder. "Leave that for Koakuma and Silk. There's better uses for our time."

With a curt nod, the guardswoman stood, squared her shoulders, and grabbed Patchouli's wrist. "Let's talk." Meiling dragged the librarian into an adjacent aisle.

Choking back a squeal, Patchouli rubbed her arm and cast a glance over her shoulder. Back by the mess, Koakuma and Silk toiled on. "What's on your mind?"

"Can you make us secure?"

Nodding, Patchouli knelt and, with a piece of chalk, drew a pentagon around Meiling. After circumscribing it, she tapped the circle with her chalk. The lines fluoresced and a susurrating breeze rippled through the library. Patchouli stood and clapped chalk dust from her hands. "We can speak freely; no one can eavesdrop now.

Meiling drove her fist into her open hand. "Whoever did this should be facing us with spellcard instead." She closed her eyes and counted to herself. "I will close the front gate. We need to check every delivery we've gotten today as well as any new ones that come in."

Patchouli shook her head. "The test for the poison is easy enough, but it takes time. I cannot work on the cure while checking every parcel. Or overseeing a team of fairies doing so, which is pretty much the same as doing it myself."

"Get Koa to do it. Preferably somewhere private without windows." Meiling pursed her lips. "I'll have to shutter those as well."

"This all would be easier if Sakuya were here."

"She's where she needs to be; keeping Remilia out of trouble." Meiling squeezed Patchouli's should. "We'll help each other out as best we can, so when Remilia returns from her hunt, she won't need to worry about little things."

Patchouli knelt and brushed her hand through the chalk. The glowing circle faded as the spell broke. "I'll hold you to that promise."

* * *

The night chill seeped into the fairies' parlor. Meiling wrapped a scarlet shawl around her shoulders and stifled a yawn. She placed a plum charm for healing on Berry's pillow. Eyeing the furnace, she brushed a strand of dark hair from the ashen fairy's brow.

The guardswoman had claimed the first fire watch of the night. Duty demanded it. Left alone, a stray ember fallen from the stove could turn the sick beds into funeral pyres, even after Patchouli abandoned her elemental fire therapy. Besides, Meiling could not bear the thought of the fairies left all alone, even overnight.

Like her mother had when Meiling was a child, the guardswoman sang the simple songs of hearth and home over the slumbering fairies. She made her rounds through the parlor, placing a plum charm on each girl's cushion. Perhaps a passing mercy goddess would be drawn by the amulets.

Meiling sat by the bed of a fairy she knew as Rose. The guardswoman rubbed her eyes. Rocking in her chair, she pinched the back of her hand. For a moment, her vision cleared. Shaking her head, she resumed her circuits through the parlor.

A bell jingled as the parlor door opened. Meiling sat up straight as Master Kaku and Patchouli entered. The librarian, now dressed in her preferred pajamas, carried a beaker. Six eyedroppers rattled around inside the glass, each filled with a golden liquid.

"Is that the antidote?" Meiling's hopes quickened.

"It is Elixir of Life made from the Philosopher's Stone." Master Kaku took two eyedroppers. "Your turn, Bell."

"Please don't spill." Patchouli pulled the beaker away from Meiling's reach. After a moment, she relented. "This isn't easy to make. Only one pipette per patient."

"Why can't you call them eyedroppers?" Meiling took two doses of the medicine. She held one up and watched the glow of the furnace play upon the golden quicksilver inside.

"A little showmanship heightens the mysteries of alchemy." Master Kaku knelt by the closest sextuplet, Daisy, tilted her head back, and administered the medicine.

"Don't dawdle. The elixir's potency diminishes with time." Patchouli treated another fairy, Clover, and dropped the empty pipette into the beaker.

Meiling in turn gave the golden medicine to Berry and Rose. Neither fairy so much as shivered after they swallowed the medicine. Fiddling with the fringe of her shawl, Meiling sat and watched Rose. "Now what?"

"We wait." Patchouli passed her beaker to Meiling. The guardswoman dropped her empty pipettes into the glass. Signing, the librarian sat beside Meiling and pulled out a pocket-sized book from her pajamas. While Patchouli flipped through its pages, Master Kaku paced circles around the room.

The pot-belly stove crackled until the fire within burned down to fading embers. Shivering, Meiling shuffled over to the furnace and stoked the flame with more firewood. She rubbed her hands together and basked in the warmth. The guardswoman chewed her lip and waited for Patchouli's patients to stir.

The librarian tucked a ribbon into her book. She reached out and pinched Rose's ear. The sleeping fairy did not flinch, even after Patchouli twisted the maid's earlobe. Slumping in her chair, the alchemist closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I told you that I have problems with the purity of the Philosopher's Stone. I am at the limit of my craft."

"We had to try." Meiling took her post by Rose's bed.

The dollish fairy still slept, but traces of color bloomed in her ashen cheeks.

 


	2. The Ginseng Girl

"Those who are filled with life need not fear tigers and rhinos in wild, nor wear armor and shields in battle." –  _The Classic of the Way and Power_ , by the Old Master

* * *

Inside the Human Village's medical clinic, Meiling huddled underneath a poster proclaiming "No Doomkittens Allowed" and covered her ears. For the past hour, she had listened while Eirin Yagokoro and Master Kaku rattled off a rapid-fire exchange that tested each other's knowledge of alchemy, herbalism, and compounding as well as the limits of Meiling's longsuffering. Now the guardswoman understood why Remilia had smirked when Meiling had begged permission to accompany Master Kaku.

"White baneberry." Standing next to an examining table, Eirin took a sleeping rabbit girl's pulse. "You might know it as herb Christopher."

Master Kaku toweled off the white rabbit's forehead. "The white berries are highly poisonous. The root acts as a violent purgative when ingested. Ground up, it is a topical salve for snakebite. Compounded, it increases the potency of the other ingredients."

"It's also a  _sang_ -sign plant." Eirin shook her head and reached for a thermometer.

"You healers are obsessed with ginseng." Master Kaku tousled the shivering rabbit's hair. "What about ladyslipper?"

Eirin set the thermometer in her patient's mouth. "Don't you mean nervine-root?"

Meiling whimpered in her corner. Even at their pettiest, Remilia and Flandre managed their sisterly catfights with less shrillness. Her sole consolation was that the sages' endless testing had yet to move to philosophy.

"'Shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it.'" Eirin waited for the mercury to quit rising. She drew in a hissing breath as the thermometer continued to climb.

At the familiar words of Master Kong's philosophy, Meiling grabbed hold of her skirt and wrung the cloth in her hands. "Will you stop dancing around and ask her?" She clapped her hands over her mouth and turned scarlet.

Rolling her eyes, Master Kaku pulled a small spiral notebook from her vest. "I need six portions each of bloodroot, snake fern berries, and white baneberry root."

"That's a strange blood tonic. You'll need to add a liter of honey water to choke it down. No, the snake fern's for something else." Eirin tapped a finger against her lips. "What's the poison?"

Master Kaku winced. " _Ku_  poison, applied to the skin."

The sage of Eternity Manor blanched at the revelation. "You'll need ginseng. Nothing else will do."

"I'll still want the white baneberry."

"No, what you'll want is a still. Purity is potency with ginseng, as is age. Did your patients swallow any of the  _ku_  poison?" Eirin waited until Master Kaku shook her head. "That's a blessing at least. You can use regular ginseng instead of a Great Root of Power."

"So, how much for the ginseng?" Meiling asked.

"I have some growing on my Youkai Mountain gardens, but it won't be ready to harvest for seven years." Eirin marked down notes in the rabbit's medical record. "You'll need to find a ginseng hunter. Mokou's the best you can find, if you can slip her from the care of my one-time assistant. So when you see Udonge, please tell her to come back. She's behind on her studies."

* * *

The flowers of  _kasane_  fashion walked among the single street of the Youkai Mountain of Moriya, named after the mountain shrine that established the sky train terminal at the settlement's heart. Young men and women loitered in small groups, each competing for attention by wearing layers of colored robes in combinations named for flowers. The young Celestial pressing her gossamer veil into the hands of any passing man wore willow, or a white robe over green. A dapper earth spider merchant paraded down the street in eye-searing grape, maroon over azure. And the sour-faced spinster sneering at Meiling's sumptuary plainness wore plum, or white over maroon.

Meiling ducked behind the general store and yanked the laces of her vest tight. Those spinsters and debutantes might sneer at her clothes, but few of them could compete with her figure. Her pride demanded satisfaction.

"Everything is vanity, a chasing after the wind.'" Master Kaku hovered by the corner of the general store and shook her head. Meiling ignored the extra sway in the pacing hermit's hips. Even the eremitic felt the tug of pride.

Meiling thrust out her chest and strutted along the thoroughfare, reveling in the wolf-whistles and catty glares. From the way the other women stepped in front their men as the guardswoman passed by, she would find no help in the hamlet. Not that she needed it to find the Wandering Eye saloon. Moriya still only had a single two-storey building. As Meiling approached, the eye on the saloon's sign, carved in the heart-shape of a  _satori's_  third eye, rolled skyward in a silent plea to the gods of the mountain.

"Bell, by showing beauty, you have revealed ugliness." Master Kaku muttered. A small bubble formed around the Chinese women, ringed by the venomous whispers of Japan's fairer flowers.

Laughing, Meiling posed in front of the saloon's swinging doors and preened.

The doors swung outward, knocking the guardswoman over. A willowy rabbit woman in a plum vested dress loomed over Meiling. "By the gods, woman, put something sensible on, like a burlap sack." Reisen Udongein Inaba's eyes flashed red as she hauled Meiling to her feet.

Master Kaku laughed while the moon rabbit manhandled the guardswoman away from the Wandering Eye. "I'm not sure that will help."

"Just take her away. I've finally convinced Jiro Shirayuki from the Human Village to settle down with my client. If he sees her through the window…"

"My eyes are quite stunning," Meiling simpered as she tried to wriggle out of the rabbit's hold.

"I don't think he'll even notice the color." Reisen spun Meiling around and flung her into the middle of the road. A silhouette passed across the saloon's front window. "Come back in a half hour." The matchmaker dashed back through the swinging doors.

Three spellcards appeared in Meiling's hand as the guardsman ran towards the Wandering Eye. A coppery  _satori_  in a pearl blouse, an ebony skirt, and a frilless apron blocked her path. Meiling sidestepped around the  _satori_ , flowing around her like water. The  _satori_  reached out, snagged the guardswoman by her ear, and twisted. As she was pulled down to the  _satori's_  eye level, Meiling hissed and dropped her spellcards. Never in a hundred battles had she thought to protect her ears.

"A word of warning, missy," the  _satori_  mindreader cooed. The wrenching of Meiling's earlobe ensured the guardswoman's rapt attention. "I don't expect everyone to like each other, but you will not drag your fights into my saloon."

Meiling eased herself within the  _satori's_  grasp until she faced Master Kaku, who bit back her laughter. "Help me," the guardswoman mouthed. She winced as she was spun around to face her assailant once again. "Do we have an understanding? Speak up; I wouldn't nod if I were you."

Meiling gasped as she fell to her knees. "Okay, I give up."

"Good. Now, missy, who are you?" The  _satori_  planted her hands on her hips, her third eye glowering at Meiling.

Drawing herself to her full height, Meiling rubbed her earlobe and backed away. A bloom in the guardswoman's cheeks betrayed her feigned indifference. "Meiling Hong. And this is-"

"-Seiga Kaku,  _née_  Wu Qing'e, and there is considerably more than a slight flaw in her character," the  _satori_  snapped. Her third eye fixed its unblinking gaze upon the Azurine Hermit.

Laughing, Master Kaku clapped her hands. "I like you. I should visit your saloon more often."

The  _satori's_  third eye flickered between the Chinese women. "I have enough impending disasters as regulars; one more won't make a difference. Try the beer; I make it myself." She beckoned with a finger and circled around the building. Meiling and Master Kaku fell in behind her. "I am Nanami Komeiji. Yes, the Royal Bookworm who reigns Down Below is my niece, and, yes, this is where Yori Houraisan stayed before he married Princess Kaguya."

"So the  _kappa_  romances are true?" Meiling asked. In the season since the wedding, whenever the  _tengu_  reporters were not sensationalizing the fairy tale princess's courtship and wedding, the  _kappa_  authors and artists patterned their penny dreadfuls after them.

"Sort of." Nanami shrugged and opened the back entrance. "At least he got his fairy tale ending, and Kaguya found her current happiness. For my part in the matter, I thought for sure that I would have to fire a musician for seducing a customer. But my business hasn't fallen off after the wedding, what with that rabbit matchmaker holding court, a kissing bandit pecking the cheeks of every man in Moriya, and Carnival of the Animals playing here twice a week."

"What about Tenshi?" A favorite of the  _kappa_  artists in their tales, the Celestial had been the original kissing bandit, planting her lips on Kaguya's then fiancé in front of everyone in Nanami's crowded saloon.

"Half of Moriya wants Tenshi to be the bandit. She hasn't been back, though, not since her last kiss with Yori. Come to think of it, neither has the bandit, not since he showed up last week." Nanami nodded out into the street.

The dapper earth spider walked down the dirt road, swinging a swagger stick. He doffed his cap towards the bartender and leered at Meiling. The guardswoman cracked her knuckles and bared her teeth. Nanami rolled her eyes and shoved Meiling inside the saloon.

Master Kaku squirmed past the bartender. "Where is Lady Mokou Fujiwara?"

Shaking her head, Nanami shut the door behind her. "She's paying penance for her part in the princess's wedding."

"The  _tengu_  broadsheets didn't say anything about her." Meiling took off her cap and scratched her head.

"Good." Nanami led them through her storeroom. Wooden crates lined one wall and a copper brewing kettle filled the other. She tarried by a thermometer dial on the kettle. "A young man searches for his true love's desire while fending off rivals and braving the elements? People want to believe those stories."

"But the truth-"

"-isn't mine to tell. Nor is it Mokou's." Nanami jotted a quick line on a checklist pinned to the kettle. Her eyes narrowed. "Master Thief Kaku, put that back or pay up. Five hundred yen."

Master Kaku sipped from a beer bottle and flipped a yellowing coin at the  _satori_ , who ran her thumb along the rim. Satisfied that the coin had not been clipped, Nanami added it to her purse.

"One more, please?" Meiling fished inside her coin purse.

"You can go ahead and grab what you want. We'll square up before you leave." Nanami peeked into the bar room through a slit in the storehouse door. "However,  _she_  pays first."

Master Kaku shrugged and slapped a bottle into Meiling's palm.

"Mokou's in the corner by the staircase. Stick to the shadows and Reisen won't know you're there." The  _satori_  barkeeper opened the door. "Try not to destroy my bar, please."

* * *

The immortal phoenix girl cowered at her table and wrapped herself within the shimmering fire mink's robe. Instead of her typical dress shirt and red suspenders, she wore a silk twelve-layered robe, with the famed treasure of Kaguya Houraisan as the outermost coat. A voluminous red and white bow, twin to the one in Mokou's floor-length hair, adorned her chest in a calculated effort to hide Nature's lack. From the way the tomboy shrank away from any man's passing stare, Meiling gathered that the formal court dress was not Mokou's choice.

The guardswoman slid into a chair and flashed a pleasant smile. "Hello, Mokou. I'm Meiling and this is Master Kaku-"

"Don't forget the slight flaw in my character."

Rolling her eyes, Meiling set her beer on the table. "So you're the ginseng girl?"

Mokou dove over the table and clamped a hand over Meiling's mouth. "Don't say that. I'm just a part-time ginseng hunter, nothing more."

"What's the difference?" Master Kaku slipped a hairpin free from her coiffure and, under the table, jabbed Mokou in her leg.

Mokou yelped and sat back down. Rubbing her leg, she shrank away from the hermit. She cast her eyes furtively around the room and leaned over the table. "There's a legend about ginseng. If a plant lives for three hundred years, it takes a human form. Like she did." She pointed to a table by the bar where Kogasa Tatara sat. The umbrella  _youkai_  swayed in her chair, growing tipsy from the endless surprises from Reisen's meet market unfolding around her.

"There's a ginseng  _youkai_?" Meiling cast a moue as she thought. "Wait, shouldn't it only take a hundred years to make one?"

Mokou sat up straight and shrugged. "How should I know? I didn't make up the tale. It's moot, anyway. Ginseng is too valuable to leave alone for a hundred years, much less three hundred."

"If you all would use bloodroot, snake fern, and all the other  _sang_ -sign plants first, maybe we could find out." Master Kaku waved the point of her hairpin at Mokou.

"Talk to Eirin and her medicine peddling bunnies, not me." Mokou crossed her arms underneath the prominent bow on her blouse. "Besides, it's not like one would live long enough for us to meet her. A ginseng girl doesn't know selfishness, and would gladly sacrifice herself to heal the pure of heart. You don't even need the red ribbon that legend recommends to capture her. Or so it is said." The immortal hid her blush with a cough.

"How did you learn all this?" Meiling asked.

Mokou grew scarlet and stared down at her lap. "I've been caught in a red ribbon once or twice."

"Unselfish and self-sacrificing. I can see how most men might make the mistake," Master Kaku deadpanned.

"It's not like that!" Mokou protested. She froze as the entire bar room fell silent and stared at her. Squealing, the immortal ducked underneath the table.

"Ever consider that those men were looking for a bride instead?" Master Kaku purred.

The table jumped, knocking over Meiling's beer. The guardswoman leapt to her feet and grabbed a napkin. She sopped up the spreading puddle and sighed. "She's fourteen hundred going on thirteen years old."

"Be that as it may, we still need a ginseng hunter," Master Kaku said.

Mokou poked her head above the table like a scared child. "If I leave, Kaguya will set that  _mochi_  mallet bunny after me again." The phoenix girl cast her eyes around the room and ducked back underneath the table.

"Eirin Yagokoro gave us your name." Meiling wadded the soaked napkin into a ball and dropped into an empty glass.

Mokou laughed as she climbed back into her chair. Suddenly, she lurched over at Master Kaku and clung to the hermit's vest. "Please, take me with you."

Master Kaku glanced over her shoulder. Placing a finger against her lips, the sage pried Mokou's fingers from her vest. "Of course."

Mokou fell to her knees. Displaying the voluminous sleeves draped from her arms, she looked up at her rescuers. "Can you sneak me upstairs? I need to change first."

* * *

Meiling whimpered at the small mountain of silk strewn from the bedroom door to the paper  _shoji_  folding screen. If sold, each of Mokou's ten robes on the floor could buy a month's supplies for the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Master Kaku held up the fire mink's robe and smoothed it out across the bed. "Perhaps we should have brought along your maid friend."

"Sakuya would faint as soon as she stepped through the door." Meiling knelt and draped a silk robe over her arm. The last of Mokou's twelve robes flew over the folding screen and covered the guardswoman's head. Without a word, Meiling untangled herself from the silk and added it to her pile.

"Is Reisen out there?" The  _shoji_  screen rocked while Mokou spoke.

Meiling stepped around the robes on the floor. Peering through the slats of the shutter, she watched the road below. Only the dapper earth spider ambled along Moriya's street. He tipped his bowler hat towards the window. "No."

"Keep looking. She's waiting for me. I know it."

Master Kaku piled robes atop the fire mink fur. "How certain are you?-" A knock on the door interrupted her.

"Mokou, there's a gentleman waiting for you downstairs." Reisen knocked again on the door.

Wearing only her dress shirt, Mokou darted out from behind the  _shoji_  screen and clawed at the doorknob. The deadbolt slide into the wall. She reached up and fastened the security chain.

The doorknob rattled. "Must we go through this every day?" asked Reisen.

Master Kaku shoved Mokou back behind the folding screen. "Get dressed."

Meiling spun the robes on her arm into a roll and tossed the bundle on the bed. She then threw open the window and the shutters.

A heavy blow shook the door. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be," Reisen said.

Master Kaku pushed against the door. A second blow sent the sage reeling. "Bell!"

Meiling threw her back against the door. She drew on the strength of her _chi_ and braced herself. Master Kaku wedged herself next to the guardswoman. The next kick staggered them both.

"You're only making this harder on yourself. This will be over as soon as you marry," Reisen said.

The folding screen toppled onto the bed. While the Chinese women endured the buffet and shock from Reisen's metronomic kicking, Mokou hopped around the room, tugging a boot on her foot. Yanking the laces tight, the phoenix girl slipped her suspenders over her shoulders and rushed for the bed. She tore at the sheets, but the silks and the  _shoji_  screen held them in place.

"Don't bother with that," Master Kaku said. She lowered her voice and murmured into Meiling's ear. "Grab her and go."

Meiling charged forward, swept Mokou into her arms, and leapt through the open window. Using the virtue of her art, the Chinese martial artist floated to the street below. On the other side of the road, the earth spider leaned against his swagger stick and watched the spectacle. Mokou slipped out of the guardswoman's arms and ducked behind her.

Master Kaku landed behind Meiling with the scratch of rock against earth. The sage tossed a powder into the air. A dust devil swirled around the women, shrouding Moriya from view. "This way," she said, leading Mokou and Meiling out of the hamlet.

* * *

As the eighth briar in as many minutes scratched past Meiling's pants, she wondered why the walls of thorns snared only her. "Are you sure we'll find ginseng here?" She unhooked her vest from a centimeter long thorn.

The bushes ahead of her rustled. Mokou, now wearing her customary blouse and pants, charged through the brush like a breeze, all the faster now that she had woven her floor-length hair into a whiptail braid. "Nothing is ever certain out here." She grabbed ahold of Meiling's arm and pulled the guardswoman deeper into the dense bramble pincushion.

Holding her hat against her head, Meiling cast a pleading glare behind her. Wherever Master Kaku stood within the walls of greenery, the briars always managed to bend away from the mountain sage. "Certainly, there's an easier place to find it…"

"I've always wanted to come out here." Mokou reached out and plucked a blackberry from a nearby bramble. The immortal held it out towards Meiling, who waved the berry away. No one in her right mind grazed from the Forest of Magic. Marisa's occasional fits served as a one-woman warning against that. Mokou shrugged and popped the berry into her mouth. "Let Reisen try to find me now."

Meiling grumbled as a creeper vine snared her foot. Kneeling down, she tugged at the snarl looped around her leg. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of a fleeing shade. She blinked her eyes, but only the hedge of thorns surrounded her.

Greenery swayed away from Master Kaku as she cut through the air in front of her with her hairpin. "You didn't need to go this far to hide. Rely on the Tao to guide you."

"My grandfather won't approve. Besides, I was a shrinemaiden when I was a child." Mokou filled her cupped hand with berries foraged from the brambles. "The old ways are the best."

"Master Lao's teachings are even older-" Master Kaku stopped as Meiling grabbed her, spun her, around and hosted her upon the guardswoman's back.

"It's still new to me. Besides, I'm certain that the Tao itself would wane before Reisen's determination to marry me off."

Master Kaku swayed as she sat upright on Meiling's shoulders. "Never mind the sermon. You and I need to share a bottle of wine." The hermit's presence warded away whipping branch and thorny vine until they passed through the bramble into a clearing.

Mokou ducked under a low branch and bounced out of the hedge of thorns into a game path lines with vine-covered walnut trees. She slid to a crouch in front of a line of shrubs. After filling a sack at her waist with berries, Mokou scrambled up a vine-covered tree after a bounty of red grapes.

"That's not wise." Despite the burden of Master Kaku's extra weight on Meiling's shoulders, the guardswoman followed her guide effortlessly. Meiling stepped around the gnarled roots beneath the tree.

"I've been climbing trees since before she was born." The phoenix girl waved towards Master Kaku and shimmied out on a sturdy branch.

The hermit dropped from Meiling's shoulders. "Aren't you worried about poisoned fruit?"

"What's the worst it could do, kill me?" Mokou wrapped her legs around the branch and filled her sack with grapes.

Meiling presumed that seedlings from a vineyard had escaped into the forest and flourished until the vines burdened the surrounding trees with fruit. "I'm more worried about you staying in your right mind."

Wisteria-dyed hair cascaded from the branches as Mokou hung upside down. "I'll be fine, although if I do start acting like Marisa, please kill me." She pointed to the mustard and clover covering the forest floor. "Look, there's not a single 'Marisa 'shroom' nearby. That's good for these grapes and even better for ginseng."

Meiling couldn't help but double over in laughter. Alice's catchall name for the dozens of species of small, magically-potent mushrooms that thrived in the Forest of Magic had spread through Gensokyo faster than the mushrooms grew. "True, but this wasn't supposed to be a trip to the village market."

"But it all tastes so good." The phoenix girl rocked back and forth before flipping out of the tree. She landed on her feet and bounced into a gymnast's salute. "I'll have to find this trail again."

"After you find ginseng."

* * *

"What does ginseng look like again?" The guardswoman sighed as she tried to brush mud from her shins. Sakuya would not be pleased upon Meiling's return to the mansion. As the phoenix girl stomped her way back and forth across the trickles of water welling up between the chestnut trees, she had somehow managed to avoid every splatter of mud. Meiling's white pants, however, bore the brunt of every puddle in her path.

Mokou held out a hand just below her knee. "A green plant about this tall, with three stems that end in thin leaflets. We might even be lucky enough to find the last crimson berry of the year."

"What about  _sang_ -sign plants?" Master Kaku floated over a puddle made wider by Meiling's boot. To the guardswoman's mounting annoyance, the sage remained as spotless as the phoenix girl guide.

"Let me worry about those." Mokou pointed to two near-identical sprigs of green. "Some  _sang_ -sign plants have poisonous copycats."

Meiling rolled her eyes and strode to a nearby chestnut tree. She leaned against the trunk and kicked mud from her boots. Ignoring the bickering between Master Kaku and Mokou, the guardswoman surveyed the forest around her. Vine-covered trees surrounded her, and beyond the forest's edge, peeking between the tree trunks and the bushes, lay the red spider lilies of Muenzuka.

An actinic flash, like a  _danmaku_  burst, shone out from a hedge of mulberry shrubs. Meiling looked over her shoulder. Her two companions were lost in discussion over a fern. Slipping away, the guardswoman padded towards the hedge.

A second silver flash raised goose bumps. Meiling crept through the building static and knelt by the line of bushes. Lowering herself to her hands and knees, she checked underneath the lowest branches. A flare of light crackled on the other side.

Meiling blinked away the purple spots blocking her vision. She could not find the feet of the magician throwing lightning. Battered by thunderclaps, the guardswoman crawled to the end of the hedge. Easing forward on her fingers and toes, she caught a quick glance of more lightning.

Behind her, Mokou and Master Kaku continued their discussion, unmindful of anything but the greenery around them.

Meiling bounced to her feet. Circling around the hedge, she flowed from one guard to the next, her hands always in motion. A chlorine-blond woman in a green dress floated by the hedgerow like a mermaid, her back turned to Meiling. Instead of fins, the woman's body tapered into a grey wisp. The guardswoman hoped the ghost was not of the vengeful kind. "Who are you?"

The spirit whirled around, trailing sparks. Static crawled up Meiling's legs as an aura glowed around the spirit.

"Bell, meet Lady Tojiko of the Soga clan, my assistant." Master Kaku stepped through the hedge as though it were mist.

The ghost's eyes flickered towards the hermit. She lowered her hand, and the corona around her faded. "Yes, mistress," she hissed.

"Bear with her. Humility is a struggle for Lady Tojiko. She was Prince Shotoku's concubine-"

"Wife."

"-and should be hiding before Lady Mokou Fujiwara, granddaughter of the rival Nakatomi clan, finds her."

"Is that like the Capulets and the Montagues? I can never keep the ruling clans outside of the Middle Kingdom's borders straight." Meiling relaxed as the electric field around her faded. "Shouldn't she be in your shrine room?"

"There is a legend that ginseng grows where lightning strikes a mountain spring." Lady Tojiko pointed to a trickle of water seeping through a clump of radish greens. The spirit traced the flow and, with a whip of her hand, threw lighting at its source. The rumble of the thunderclap died away, and the water dried up. "The mistress wanted me to speed up the process."

Meiling stared at the bare earth. "Perhaps it takes longer than a moment to grow."

Master Kaku shook her head. "It was worth a try. Even newly sprouted, ginseng has power."

Lady Tojiko pointed to a set of scorch marks among the radishes. "Perhaps there will be some in a day, a week, or a year. But I am not waiting until then for what you owe me."

"Why, Sister Tojiko, did you not swear unto me an oath of poverty?" Master Kaku hid her smile behind her hairpin.

"Do not confuse me for an oblate sister of the Myouren temple." Lighting arced between the spirit's hands.

Rolling her eyes, Meiling peered over the mulberry hedge. A flash of red and white danced between the peach trees and plums lining the edge of the grove. How had Mokou not heard the commotion? Behind her, a silver light flared, casting long shadows towards the distant immortal. But when Meiling turned around, Master Kaku was alone.

"I sent her back to the shrine room before she caused further trouble." The Azurine Hermit erased a ward scratched into the soil. She stopped, tapped the leaf of a mustard plant, and pursed her lips. "Let's get back to Mokou."

Meiling nodded and lifted herself on her toes until her head peeked above the mulberries. She called out the ginseng hunter's name three times.

The phoenix girl stepped out from behind a thicket and waved her hands over her head. "Over here!"

Meiling waved back and led Master Kaku around the hedge. Staying mindful of the mountain sage trailing further behind her, the guardswoman kept one eye on the scarlet and white ginseng hunter.

Master Kaku ran her fingers along the plants as she walked and muttered under her breath. She looked up at the leafy canopy. Her eyes widened she backed into Meiling. "Bell, freeze. Keep your voice low."

Meiling eased into a defensive crouch, her arms flowing into wards in from of her body. She breathed deeply and felt the familiar tingle in her hands as  _chi_  flowed through her body. "I see the forest and, just beyond, the lilies of Muenzuka."

"Look at the plants. See the trees, not the forest."

Meiling blinked as she stood. She had not kept up with her herblore since she first left her village in China, but time with Sakuya in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's garden had taught her to recognize the plants around her. Looking down at her feet, she saw onions and mustard. Kudzu and grape vines climbed the mighty chestnut trees that shaded plum and apricot. Beans, buckwheat, and currant bushes covered the ground between tree trunks. "Everything here is edible. This isn't a forest; it's a farm."

Master Kaku shook her head. "This close to Muenzuka, where outsiders still stumble through the Hakurei barrier? How many stop here to eat a peach?"

"Who can say? No one in the Village knows about this place."

"That's because no one who stopped here ever made it to the Village." Master Kaku held her hairpin out in front of her like a knife. "This is a hunting preserve for  _youkai_.'

Drawing a quick breath, Meiling dipped back into her guard. Master Kaku's idea made horrible sense. Newcomers to Gensokyo were fair game for  _youkai_  until they reached the protection of the Human Village. The longer they tarried on the way to safety, the less likely they would live. "This reeks of  _kappa_  cunning."

Master Kaku gestured with her hairpin towards the thickets underneath the trees. "This took more teamwork and expertise with earth than you could expect from any quarrelsome  _kappa sept_. Besides, there's not a cucumber vine in sight."

"Why didn't Lady Tojiko warn us?" Meiling padded through the leafy ground cover, flowing from guard to guard as though she were practicing her  _tai chi chuan_  forms.

"Lady Tojiko never noticed. She was a palace girl while she was alive. The concerns of food and forests were left to the peasants." Master Kaku followed, taking care to only step in Meiling's footsteps.

"Hey! I found some!" Mokou called out in high tones that pierced through the Forest of Magic. She held up three roots, each shaped like an elongated doll, and waved them over her head.

The brush behind Mokou exploded in a shower of leaves. A dapper earth spider, in  _kasane_  grape, tackled Mokou around the waist. The phoenix girl kicked and shrieked, dropping the ginseng roots as she tore at the spider's arms. A hand snaked under her shoulder and clamped tight against her mouth. Mokou's eyes went wide, and flames danced around her. The earth spider jerked Mokou's head straight up, baring her throat. Then, just like Meiling had seen Remilia do countless times to her prey, he sank his fangs deep into Mokou's neck. A crimson river coursed down her neck, staining her shirt. Mokou thrashed once and fell into a swoon. The flames died around her. Instead of draining the girl dry, the earth spider held a compress to Mokou's neck and wound her within a veil of white bridal silk.

Meiling launched herself at Mokou's captor. A blond earth spiderette, her hair in a crown of braids, charged out from behind a tree. Meiling tackled the beast  _youkai_. Both women crumpled into a heap, but the guardswoman rolled to her feet.

The forest erupted in whirls of neon starbursts. Meiling spun her way through the  _danmaku_  web, but every step closer to the earth spider kidnapper was met by an unbroken wall of dense magical shot. Slowly, the magical storm pushed Meiling further from Mokou's silk cocoon. A cluster of  _danmaku_  shot slammed into Meiling's kidney. She dropped to the ground, soaking up more stinging  _danmaku_  as she rolled to find cover. The  _danmaku_  typhoon died away, taking the earth spiders and Mokou's cocoon with it.

Clinging to the trunk of a chestnut tree, Meiling pulled herself upright. Her skin stung as though she had been whipped with nettles, but with deep breaths and careful control of her  _chi_ , the stinging faded.

"Now we know who created this garden." Master Kaku appeared in the clearing and raked her hands through the underbrush. The Azurine Hermit help up a crushed ginseng root before wrapping it in discarded spider silk. With her hairpin, Master Kaku pointed in turn to a series of thickets ringing the clearing. "We're chasing trap door spiders. Find their burrow."

Shaking her head, Meiling pushed herself back on her feet and examined the ground by Master Kaku. Every broken branch, dusty imprint, and crushed leaf told its story. With enough time, she would be able to piece together where the spiders had dragged away the ginseng girl. Meiling circled the clearing, shaking every shrub as she searched for entrances to the underworld. She found the fallen trunk of a giant chestnut and waved Master Kuku over. "I'm beginning to see the charm of how Reimu tackles incidents."

"Keep shooting at people until you find the one person who knows what's going on, then beat her up until she tells you? It's a wonder she's not an outcast."

"There is a simplicity to the method." Meiling circled the tree, but could not find a trace of a tunnel.

"Simplicity isn't wisdom." Master Kaku ran her hands along the fallen trunk. Grabbing hold of a slender branch, the Azurine Hermit ripped away a silk screen, revealing a sinkhole within the fallen tree's shadow.

Meiling knelt by the burrow's lip and searched for the gossamer shimmer of spider webbing. "And wisdom isn't chasing a spider into his parlor full of traps. But we have no choice."

Master Kaku held up her chisel-pointed hairpin. She walked five paces away from the sinkhole. Kneeling, she scratched a wide circle in the ground with the heirloom. The circle glowed, then faded away, along with the earth inside. She pointed to the newly made tunnel. "We'll use our own path instead."

* * *

As Master Kaku's makeshift tunnel vanished, Meiling perched in the oculus of an underground dome. In the square chamber below, gas lamps illuminated a black widow mosaic floor. At each corner of the chamber, a fluted arch led deeper into uncharted catacombs. She glanced over at Master Kaku on the opposite side of the oculus. "Where's Mokou?"

The Azurine Hermit leaned over the edge and pointed. Atop a raised platform, webs lashed human-sized cocoons against a frescoed wall.

"And the guards?"

"Who would have thought that ambush spiders could hide?"

Meiling ran her fingers across the spiderweb mural etched into the polished oculus wall. "I'm surprised they built this."

"We are not barbarians." A shadow among the cocoons unfolded into a comely raven-haired spideress in black Chinese robes. As she glided onto the mosaic, her long flowing sleeves and waist length hair trailed behind her. "And our artisans are not diminished because they are outcasts."

Meiling whistled as she eased herself away the oculus's edge. "She's pretty good."

"Thank you." The spideress stepped on the red hourglass of the mosaic and looked up at the opening of the dome. "But you are not. Otherwise, you would not conceal yourselves in the one place that amplifies your voice for all to hear. Don't be coy. It is too late to hide."

Meiling cast a glance at Master Kaku. The Azurine Hermit nodded and pointed to the tiled floor. Flipping over the side, Meiling floated down to the floor. Five spiderettes in brown jumpers stormed through the arches and ringed the red hourglass design. Meiling touched down inside the circle, her eyes flickering between the six spiders surrounding her. Behind her, Master Kaku fell from the vault like lightning.

"Where's Mokou?" Meiling demanded.

The robed spideress returned the guardswoman's stare. "You have intruded upon my parlor. Therefore, you may join our feast or you will become it. For your sake, remember your politesse."

"May Heaven bless us all. My surname is Kaku, my personal name is Seiga, and there is a slight flaw in my character." The Azurine Hermit cupped her left hand over her right and bowed.

"I am Meiling Hong, sworn to the service of the Scarlet Devil." Meiling flashed a smile as she, too, cupped her hands in greeting. She wished Remilia was present to glory in the boast.

The spideress returned their greeting with a nod of her head. "I am Kuroko of the branch family of the Kurodani clan." Kuroko's ruby lips turned as Meiling covered her mouth and nose. "Pestilence is my cousin's power, not mine."

Meiling blushed and clasped her hands behind her back. "Sorry."

"And these are my ladies-in-waiting, my guests for tonight's feast." On Kuroko's right, the spiderette with a crown of braids leered and licked her lips.

"Now, where's Mokou?" Master Kaku asked.

"All in good time." Kuroko clapped her hands. "Let me first introduce my nephew, Hachitarou."

"You have eight nephews?"

"Eight is a sacred number for spiders."

The dapper earth spider from Moriya hamlet sauntered out of the catacombs, swinging his swagger stick. He vaulted onto the platform. Weaving his way through the webbing, Hachitarou stopped at a slender cocoon. He peeled away the white silk from the top as though he lifted away a veil, revealing Mokou's ashen face. The phoenix girl did not stir as Hachitarou cupped her cheek. "We might need to fatten her up a bit."

Meiling lunged for the stage. The hungry spiderette and her nearby sisters formed a wall and pushed her back into the center of the circle. The guardswoman cracked her knuckles. "Feed on her, and you'll call the shrinemaidens' wrath down on your people."

Kuroko laughed behind her flowing sleeve. "Feed on Lady Fujiwara? You are mistaken. She is his bride, not a fattened calf."

"The rabbit matchmaker never entertained my suit." Hachitarou gingerly spun the veil into a silk train. "'Humans only,' she said, even though my holdings far exceed that of all the striplings vying for her favor."

Meiling compared the spiderettes to Mokou bound in her silk. "I don't get it. There must be eligible brides among your people." The braided spiderette balled her fists and glared at the guardswoman.

Her lips a bloodless line, Master Kaku pulled out a hip flask and fiddled with the cap.

"You wouldn't understand. Your kind was not been driven underground for centuries," Kuroko said. "By uniting our house with hers, my kith and kin will no longer be earth spiders but members of the Fujiwara clan."

"Legally human." Hachitarou tugged on silk skeins, drawing the cocoon tighter against Mokou's body until the silk prison resembled a snug wedding dress. "Just like that rabbit matchmaker and her moon princess."

Meiling cast a questioning glance at Master Kaku. The Azurine Hermit shook the flask and held her thumb over its mouth. "The earth spiders would be able to walk in the sunlight once more. For that, you'd create a loveless marriage?"

"No sacrifice is too great to return the blessings of Grandmother Sky to my people." Hachitarou tied off the last thread. He stepped away from her and examined his handiwork. "In time, I might not view this marriage as such."

"Grandmother Sky allows concubines, so it won't be entirely loveless," Kuroko said, turning towards her nephew.

"For him," Master Kaku snapped.

"Should it be otherwise?"

Master Kaku lobbed the flask at Kuroko. At the height of its arc, the hipflask took flight and belched grey clouds of smoke as it spiraled through the chamber. "Bell, make a path for me."

Kuroko held her arms out wide. "The wedding feast has begun!"

The hungry spiderette and her nearby sisters charged forward. Meiling grinned as she shoved the braided spiderette across the chamber. A sweep of Meiling's hands brushed aside the second spiderette's kick. Her palm strike to the jaw rocked the third back on her heels.

Rings of  _danmaku_  sliced past Meiling. She whirled around. A Junoesque spiderette danced through a  _kata_ , hurling magical shot with each punch. Behind her, Master Kaku ran from the last spiderette.

As Meiling grazed her way past the neon clusters, the Junoesque girl held up a glowing spellcard as a shield. Meiling slapped it away and pummeled the spiderette across her shoulders and forehead. The stunned  _youkai_  collapsed on top of the spellcard as it flashed. The guardswoman threw her arm over her eyes as neon light engulfed the spiderette. The radiance faded, and the Junoesque spider lay still.

Arms like iron bars tackled Meiling around her waist, driving the air from her lungs. As she gasped, hot breath played across her neck. Meiling threw her head back, slamming her skull into the spiderette's. The grip around Meiling slackened, and she staggered free.

Master Kaku knelt by the edge of the tiled floor. Her pursuer lunged at her and dropped into a sudden hole. The Azurine Hermit lifted her hairpin heirloom from a black border tile. The mouth of the tunnel blinked shut.

Meiling spun around. The spiderette staggered, caught her balance, and threw a punch. Meiling caught the blow on the back of her wrist and chopped the  _youkai's_  ribs with her free hand. She swung her chopping hand into the spiderette's trapped arm, and, continuing the circle, drove her attacker to her knees. A rabbit punch to the back of her head sprawled the spiderette onto the tiles.

Shrieking, the braided spiderette charged Meiling. The guardswoman warded away a high kick and countered with a flurry of short punches. The blond  _youkai_  blocked what she could and slipped past the rest, staying within arm's reach.

Meiling chopped at her opponent's shoulder. The spiderette ducked underneath the blow, wrapped her arms around Meiling's waist, and spun behind the guardswoman. Meiling threw elbows behind her at the spiderette, but the blonde ducked her head between the guardswoman's shoulder blades and endured the glancing blows. The spiderette drove a foot into the back of Meiling's knee. The two  _youkai_  toppled to the ground.

Cursing all grapplers, Meiling landed on her stomach. She crawled forward, squirming out from under the spiderette. The braided blonde sat on Meiling's back and dug her heels into the Chinese  _youkai's_  sides. Meiling tried to buck the lighter  _youkai_  off, but the spiderette held on.

Leaning over Meiling's head, the blonde took the guardswoman's arm and wrapped it around the redhead's neck. Meiling wedged a hand into the hold to prevent a choke. Instead, the spiderette rocked the guardswoman onto her back. Immediately, Meiling threw her arms in front of her face. The blows rained down, quick and thunderous, pounding Meiling's forearms. The Chinese redhead grit her teeth and endured the barrage.

The spiderette's frenzy abated. She shimmied her way up Meiling's body until she sat on the guardswoman's stomach. Meiling grunted as the blonde bounced her weight into the Chinese  _youkai's_  guts.

Ripping away Meiling's guard, the braided  _youkai_  pinned the guardswoman's arms to the floor. She leaned towards Meiling's neck, baring her teeth. Venom beaded at the tip of the spiderette's needle sharp eyeteeth.

With a shout, Meiling drove her knee into the spiderette's butt. The blonde somersaulted over Meiling's head and across the tiles. The guardswoman flipped onto her belly.

A billowing tendril of smoke twisted down from the domed vault. It looped around Meiling's waist and yanked her into the air. She flew towards the platform, where Master Kaku slapped away Hachitarou's strikes. The sage palmed an incandescent spellcard and ducked behind Mokou's wedding cocoon.

Meiling crashed into Hachitarou, flattening him against the platform. She rolled away from the stunned spider, grimacing as a myriad of hurts screamed out at once. She laid on the floor and gulped down air.

The smoke reached down again and seized Meiling by her shoulders. This time, it dragged Meiling to her feet and shoved her towards Mokou's silk prison turned wedding dress at the center of the stage. She wobbled on her feet and clung to the cocoon. The envenomed phoenix girl slumbered within, unaware of the conflict around her.

"Keep it together for a little longer." Master Kaku threw a spent spellcard over her shoulder and pulled out the crushed ginseng root from her vest. She snapped a tendril off the root and placed it in her mouth. Choking, the sage spun Meiling across the stage.

The braided spiderette caught the guardswoman in a rear bear hug. Meiling grabbed the blonde's elbows and spun around, throwing the spiderette off the stage.

"Stay away from her!" Kuroko shrieked. At center stage, Master Kaku stretched up on her toes, pried open Mokou's mouth, and put her lips over the phoenix girl's. The dark-haired spideress threw her arms forward. Silk cords whipped out from her oversized sleeves and struck Master Kaku in the back. The sage staggered away from Mokou, spewing chewed root. The phoenix girl sputtered before slumping back inside her cocoon.

Polished steel gleamed in the gaslight. Hachitarou threw aside the swagger stick and brandished a thin épée. With the point held out in front of him, the dapper earth spider exploded into a running lunge, flying across ten meters of the stage like lightning.

Meiling vaulted over Hachitarou, twisted away from Kuroko's black whips, and drove her foot into the braided spiderette's chest. She spun around in a straight-legged crouch and, with a hand to the flat of Hachitarou's sword, warded off his thrust. Standing, she caught his riposte and struck his sword arm.

Whirling about, she met the braided spiderette's arm grab with a flurry of punches. Meiling spun like a dervish, frustrating the spiders' attacks with her spiraling defense. Yet in middle of the fight, the guardswoman's eyes sought out the mountain sage.

Kuroko's silk cords chased Master Kaku across the platform, the tips cracking at the sage's feet. The Azurine Hermit wove through a trio of desiccated cocoons, tangling the whips around the silk pillars. Kuroko bellowed and drew back her hands. The silk cages exploded into a cloud of dust as the cords returned to the spideress's sleeves. Coughing, the Azurine Hermit pulled herself out of the new pit in the platform. The sage cast a glance over her shoulder.

Inside her silk cocoon dress, Mokou slumped forward. The phoenix girl squirmed in her bonds. Her eyes snapped open and Mokou saw her wedding dress prison. The phoenix girl roared. Her cocoon glowed an incandescent while, illuminating the chamber like an underground sun.

Meiling dove for the refuge of darkness, chased by Mokou's inferno.

* * *

Meiling gasped and sat upright, her heartbeat roaring in her ears. She shielded her eyes from the stinging sunlight glare piercing through the food forest's canopy. She planted her free hand into a bed of fallen leaves. Her eyes grew wide and she patted down her body.

"Good. You're awake," a woman growled.

Meiling spun around and scooted away. Atop the fallen chestnut tree, Mokou whittled away at a branch in her hand with a mirror polished penknife. Watching every bobble of the blade, Meiling massaged her throat. "Where's Master Kaku?" she croaked.

The knife dipped towards a crook in the tree trunk. The Azurine Hermit slept sere between the branches.

"And the spiders?" Meiling forced herself to swallow, despite her cottonmouth.

Without taking her eyes off her handiwork, Mokou flicked her knife at the sinkhole. Char and ash ringed the burrow for a meter in all directions. The phoenix girl examined the carving in her hand. Casting a moue of disgust, she tossed the branch over her shoulder, folded the knife against her leg, and lobbed a canteen at the guardswoman.

Meiling caught the canteen. Reveling in the chill of the evening breeze, she pulled a long drought straight from the canteen's mouth. She wiped her lips clean on her sleeve. "Thank you-"

Mokou held up her hand. She tapped her index finger to her lips. Meiling froze, closed her eyes, and capped a hand to her ear. As her heart settled, the guardswoman grew aware of a murmuring at the edge of her hearing, too soft and sneaky to be voices. She opened her eyes. The forest garden around her remained still.

The phoenix girl dropped from her perch. "We should have made it out of the forest before now."

"Couldn't you have carried us?" Eyeing the trees surrounding her, Meiling rolled to her feet and brushed leaves from her skirt.

Mokou shrugged. "You're heavy. You've got twice the muscle of a man your size." She walked over to a plum tree and circled the trunk. "Pick her up and follow me."

Her cheeks burning, Meiling knelt by the slumbering sage and lifted Master Kaku up. Holding the Azurine Hermit piggyback, the guardswoman chased after the phoenix girl.

"Slow down," Mokou called over her shoulder. She strode between the tress, one hand on the leather sheath on her hip.

"Fast is slow, slow is smooth, smooth is fast." Meiling repeated a motto already ancient before she became a guard. She caught up with her guide.

Mokou hushed the Chinese  _youkai_. "The forest stirs." Her knuckles turned white on the handle of her belt knife.

Meiling nodded and fell in behind Mokou, settling into the strange pace the ginseng hunter kept. Five quick steps alternated with five slower ones. After a minute, the rhythm became routine for Meiling, and the two women ambled through the forest in a silence broken only by cicadas and crickets.

Chestnut and plum narrowed into dark beech and oak. The occasional blue break in the leaves overhead turned pink and the evening breeze found a bitter bite. Yet the two women wove their way through the trees, ever mindful of the creeping shadows.

Mokou called for a rest. Meiling leaned up against a tree. She shifted her shoulders to better bear Master Kaku upon them. Despite the distance and the broken ground, the slumbering hermit was not a burden. Back at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Meiling often carried Flandre around for longer periods of time.

"Stay off the trees." With her belt knife, Mokou hacked two branches from a fallen oak. Then, palming a white flame, she kindled the end of each, and offered one to the guardswoman.

Meiling took the makeshift torch. Without cloth, pitch, or wax, the fire would burn up the wood in minutes, not hours. But as shadow darkened into night, any light was a blessing.

Mokou paled, and held up her hand. "Do you hear that?"

Meiling closed her eyes and strained to hear over the crackle of drying wood in flame. Soft paws padded against dried leaves. Sometimes she heard two, then four, then a pack circling. A chill ran down her back. She drew in a deep breath and glanced over at Mokou.

"Run!" the phoenix girl commanded. Mokou bounded through the trees, her whiptail braid flying behind her.

Meiling gave chase. Even with the flickering torchlight, trees leapt out at her from the dancing shadows, forcing the Chinese  _youkai_  to rely on reflexes hones by  _tai chi chuan_. Behind her, the wind became a baying howl.

Drawing upon perfect form and her wellsprings of  _chi_ , Meiling surged forward, overtook Mokou, and picked up the phoenix girl in a bridal carry. The immortal threw an arm around Meiling's neck and grabbed hold of Master Kaku's hands.

Carrying bother her companions, Meiling flew through the forest in long leaps. Even though the torches had been tossed aside, she bounded through the darkness without colliding with trees.

From all directions, the keening chasing her grew into a chorus.

Meiling's leaps grew larger, from ten meters to thirty to a hundred in each stride. In her arms, Mokou pulled tight against the martial artist and babbled prayers and promises to gods long forgotten.

Finally, Meiling vaulted over one last low shadow. She landed in the starlit meadow cleared between forest and farm in Gensokyo. She whirled around. A wide shadow darker than a moonless night stirred in the tree line. Mokou slid out of Meiling's arms. A jet of fire from her hands lit up the meadow. The choir of keening howls stopped and the shadow vanished.

Slowly, as Meiling doubled over and panted, the night song of birds and insects resumed. "What was that?"

"I don't know." Meiling kept her eyes on the benighted forest line. "I've tried to find out before, only to resurrect without a memory of what killed me."

"Will it come out here?"

"No, its home is in the forest." Despite her air of certainty, Mokou cupped a blue gas flame in her hands and watched the tree line.

Meiling set Master Kaku down in the grass. She stood next to the phoenix girl and settled into a combat stance.

In the moonlight, shadows danced among the trees, buoyed by the wind. But the wall of darkness never returned.

Mokou closed her hand, snuffing out the flame. While Meiling relaxed, the phoenix girl fished a spider-silk bundle from her pocket. With a bow, she proffered the swaddling to Meiling. "Thank you."

Meiling received the swatch with both hands. Hefting the bundle, she felt the three tapering roots inside slip past each other. "I should thank you instead. This will help Berry and her sisters recover."

"I meant for your help with Reisen." Mokou deepened her bow and backed away. "And the spiders."

"We couldn't have left you with them." Meiling watched as Mokou stood and walked away, following the meadow. The  _youkai_  pointed towards the hearth fires burning at the nearby farms. "You should stay with us for the night. It's too late to walk to Moriya."

Mokou kept walking. "Youkai Mountain wants Lady Fujiwara, not Mokou, so Mokou must find her home elsewhere. Please, don't tell anyone where I'm going." Ahead of her, the distant silhouette of a  _torii_  shrine gate loomed in the moonlight.

Meiling watched Mokou disappear into the night, her eyes flickering between the phoenix girl and the sleeping hermit. Custom compelled her to see Mokou to her destination, but she could not leave her charge unguarded. She remembered the smooth silk in her hand, and the six fairies laying in a parlor, and returned to Master Kaku. The guardswoman's eyes narrowed. "How long were your awake?"

The Azurine Hermit lay still in the grass, a smile spreading on her lips. ""Since we left the food forest." She opened her eyes and sat up. Her hairpin flashed in the moonlight as the sage danced it across her knuckles. "You didn't fly through the forest unscathed without help."

Meiling frowned as she pulled Master Kaku to her feet. "Why did you pretend for so long?"

"Do you think I could have kept up with you? Even burdened with two people like you were?" Master Kaku brushed grass from her dress. "We only escaped because of your speed."

A bat-winged shadow passed in front of the moon.

"Let's hurry back to the mansion," Meiling said.

* * *

Inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion's kitchen, glass pipes and rubber tubing climbed the walls like unpruned trellises of kudzu. Meiling ducked underneath a water-fed condenser stretched across the doorway. The guardswoman sneezed at the cloying aroma of cooking rice. "What happened in here?"

Patchouli sat at the island counter, a dozen hardback books stacked in front of her. "Remi won't let me run water pipes to the library, so I moved my equipment."

"Does Sakuya know about this?"

"She's busy mothering the fairies." Patchouli threw a crumpled napkin into the pantry. "Koa, get up."

The red-haired devil girl toppled out of the pantry, clutching a wine bottle by the long-stemmed neck. The clear liquid sloshed around inside, before vanishing between Koakuma's lips. She gasped and melted against the tiled floor. "But the still's still going." The devil hiccupped and closed her eyes.

Patchouli pinched the bridge of her nose. "Which one, the glass one here or the two hidden inside my library?" Her voice dipped into a mutter. "Or the ones you squirreled away, even from me?"

Koakuma's eyes fluttered as she counted with her thumb against her knuckles. "All of them? You can't make  _sochu_ , whiskey, and schnapps in the same still."

Shaking her head, Meiling stepped out of the doorway. She would need to "confiscate" the schnapps as part of "her official duties" later. For the sake of the fairy maids' virtue, of course.

Master Kaku touched the condenser as she pushed past Meiling. "Glass? Why not copper?"

Koakuma rolled to her side and pointed at Patchouli with her bottle. "She's too cheap. Millions of yen for books, but not even a hay-penny for good drink."

"Paint thinner is not 'good drink.'" Patchouli snapped her fingers. "Get up."

"Don't want to."

The librarian picked up a thick book from the counter and scowled down at Koakuma. "Fine. But make yourself useful for once." Patchouli tossed the book at her devilish assistant, who flinched as the tome smacked against the floor. "Summarize all of Aya's articles on the Golden Room. Quickly, before the collection goes missing again."

Patchouli opened a second book and ran her finger down the page. "To answer your question, she likes to repurpose my alchemical equipment for her vices, and I use enough glassware in my studies that I don't always notice right away when a piece or five is missing. As soon as I mentioned that we might need spirits for an herbal extract, she started brewing up her rotgut."

"And you didn't stop her?" Master Kaku tapped her hairpin against her lips.

Meiling bit her lip, stifling her laughter. Spinning around the corner, Meiling clutched her sides as her back hit the wall. After gathering a shade of composure, the Chinese  _youkai_  peeked around the corner.

Patchouli help up an empty wine bottle. "Booze doesn't last long around here."

"One bottle for the fairies' medicine, and three bottles for me," Koakuma cooed. The temptress reached out and flipped open the book's cover. After squinting at the front page, she guzzled from her bottle.

"What type of spirits work best?" Master Kaku asked. Meiling peeked over at the Azurine Hermit and sighed. She recognized the particular lilt in the master's voice. Sometime soon, she would have work for Meiling.

"Oddly enough, Koakuma's rotgut  _sochu,_  once it's been distilled three times and filtered through charcoal. We can get started now, if I can have the herbs" Patchouli held out an open hand. Meiling rounded the corner and gave a silk bundle to the librarian, who hefted the package in her hand. Unraveling the spider silk, Patchouli revealed the three long tapering roots. "It will take up twelve hours for the distilled spirits to leach all the healing virtue from the ginseng, and another twelve to purify the essences."

"Why not speed it up with a little heat?"

"Because I don't want to cook away the compounds that the fairies need." Patchouli placed the three roots into a glass jar.

"What about-"

"I know my craft," Patchouli snapped. "Let me be about it."

Master Kaku pursed her lips and waited out Patchouli's glower in silence. Without a word, the sage turned away and walked out of the kitchen.

"Don't go too far, Meiling." Patchouli knelt and twisted the bottle in Koakuma's hand. A trickle of clear spirits splashed over the roots in her jar. "Remi is still watching you."

Meiling cringed and skulked outside. After a few steps she leaned against the wall and sighed. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and sought after her calm.

"Over here, Bell." Master Kaku studied another rainbow toned coin mounted on the wall. "Do you think your mistress will allow you to leave the mansion?"

Meiling chewed her lip. She had yet to see Remilia since returning from the Forest of Magic. "I think she might."

"Excellent," Master Kaku said. "Tomorrow, we're going shopping."

 


	3. The Ghost Queen

"Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides." – _The Classic of the Way and Power_ , by the Old Master

* * *

Hidden between racks of ruffled dresses, Meiling covered her agape mouth as Yori Houraisan stormed out of the Kirisame Boutique's showroom. Alone at the sales counter, Kaguya Houraisan stood mannequinlike amidst a ring of open jewelry boxes. The fairy-tale princess pleaded with wide eyes for her husband to return to her side.

The glass door slammed behind the stocky printer, knocking over the store's bell. Outside, on the village streets, passersby sped out of Yori's way.

Cold brass tapped against Meiling's foot. With a shriek, the guardswoman jumped out of her hiding place.

Kaguya's eyes fixed on the comely redhead before glancing at the door. With a wordless sputter, the moon princess dashed out of the store.

Sheepishly, Meiling backed away from the storekeeper's stare and slipped behind a rack of _yukata_ gowns. Something sharp jabbed into her back. The guardswoman whirled around, covering her mouth with both hands.

Master Kaku slid a hairpin into her coiffure. "Hold this and come with me." She thrust a wave-print _yukata_ at Meiling's chest.

"I expected more compassion from a fellow Taoist." Meiling draped the silk gown over her arm. Rubbing her back, she followed the Azurine Hermit to the rear counter.

"Don't confuse voyeurism for compassion. Or the weddings in your _manga_ tales for marriage." The Azurine Hermit pawed inside a jewelry box left open on the counter. She held up a butterfly barrette. "This is an impressive piece."

Mr. Kirisame emerged from the storage room. The salt-and-pepper-haired merchant stacked jewelry boxes on the counter. "Yori has an eye for jewelry. Unfortunately, Princess Kaguya considers my wares to be too pedestrian."

Meiling ran her finger along the edge of the butterfly's wing. The translucent green stone, Dushan jade from the Middle Kingdom, glowed at her touch. The moon princess would make a perfect ornament for the carving.

Had Meiling not spurned Yori months earlier, that jade butterfly might have been hers. Granted, he was an awkward schoolboy at the time. She licked her lips. Perhaps she should check if Japan still allowed concubinage-

"Bell!" Master Kaku snapped her fingers in front of Meiling's face. With a start, Meiling grew crimson and pulled her hand away from the ornament. The Azurine Hermit set the jade ornament on the counter. "What do you know about spirits?"

Meiling coughed into her hand. "Emperor Yu the Great forbade rice wine-"

"I meant ghosts." The hermit took the _yukata_ from Meiling and set it next to the jade carving.

"I don't have much to do with them, except when Lady Yuyuko and Youmu attend the mansion's feasts. And now Lady Tojiko as well, I suppose."

Master Kaku raised an eyebrow. "What about your ancestors?"

"Of course," Meiling stammered. "I always offer them the proper gifts. In return, they grant good fortune and health-" The Chinese _youkai's_ eyes widened as she trailed off. Their shopping trip now made sense. Master Kaku smiled and added an amber heart necklace to her pile.

"Perhaps Chinese ghosts might be so benevolent," Mr. Kirisame said. "Japanese ghosts would steal your bodies."

"To change their ways, our offerings must be of the highest quality." Master Kaku planted a rainbow-stained coin on the counter.

Meiling frowned as the hermit kept a finger pressed against the toned silver. She leaned closer to the counter. Without a close examination of the coin's face, she could not tell if it was a _real_ from the mansion's halls. It appeared to be the right size, though.

"Miss Hong?" Mr. Kirisame cleared his throat. The shopkeeper held out a sealed envelope. "Could you please deliver this message to Miss Knowledge?"

Meiling perked up as she took the envelope. A love letter from the father of Patchouli's chief annoyance in life? She would hand the note to the librarian herself. Well, right after she told Sakuya, Remilia, and Koakuma. No one would want to miss Patchouli's mortification. "She'll get it as soon as I see her."

"Thank you. I await her reply, hopefully before I leave on my next trade expedition." Mr. Kirisame picked up the stacked boxes and shelved them underneath the sales counter.

Master pursed her lips and added an amber pendant to her pile. "Can you recommend a vintner?" she asked the merchant.

Mr. Kirisame drew in a sharp breath. "My daughter makes a fine _futsu_ table _sake_ when it strikes her fancy."

"I was thinking more of grape wine. Perhaps a sparkling Koshu?"

"All for Lady Tojiko? Your assistant shouldn't need offerings to help us." Meiling glanced at the growing stack of gifts on the counter. The rainbow coin was gone. The guardswoman sighed; she needed to inventory the Scarlet Devil Mansion's vault after this incident.

Master Kaku hid her smile behind the cherry blossom-print of a paper fan. "Bell, you must learn to be more ambitious."

* * *

Shuffling through a billowing shroud of fog, Meiling carried Master Kaku and a full rucksack on her shoulders. Only the diffuse glow of nearby will-o'-the-wisps marred the cloud walls that covered everything in unbroken white. The guardswoman could not see her own hands or even the buckles of Master Kaku's shoes. Neon spirits, more common than fairies here on the path to the Netherworld, circled the Chinese _youkai_ , waiting for a misstep. Shivering, Meiling stopped and groped for a spellcard tucked in her vest.

Master Kaku rapped her knuckles on the top of Meiling's head. "Head towards the brightest light."

Meiling clenched her eyes until they watered. No matter which direction she turned, three wisps lit the fog in front of her. "Which one is that?"

"Turn to your right." Master Kaku pointed, reaching into the fog. "Keep turning. Now walk forward."

Meiling shuffled towards a pink glow all but identical to the other wisps in the fog, counting her paces with each step. After a hundred, the wind picked up, whipping Meiling's hair around her and driving away the white clouds. Four squared timber pillars and a shadowed gate loomed through the thinning haze. Etched with actinic lines, a circumscribed star glowed on the stone gate. Meiling pushed her pace until she passed between the first two pillars.

"Wait." Master Kaku dropped from Meiling's back. Working her shoulders in circles, the guardswoman yanked on her rucksack straps until the hiking pack sat high on her back. The Azurine Hermit palmed a deck of spellcards and approached the wind-worn gate.

The magical circle flared white, flooding the courtyard with an arctic chill. A dozen will-o'-the-wisps howled out of the gate. As the glowing spirits rushed Meiling, she flung a spellcard. The wall of _danmaku_ shredded the spirits into fading smoke.

A second wave screamed free from the circle. Pink _danmaku_ clusters burst between the pillars like summer fireworks. A flash of heat lightning later, and only the living stood before the magical gate. As Meiling exhaled sharply, Maaster Kaku tossed away a spent spellcard.

The magic circle on the gate glowed yet again. Meiling filled her free hand with spellcards.

A black tear ripped through the air in front of the gate, bound by red ribbons at each end. The line blinked open, eclipsing the magical radiance with a galaxy of unblinking eyes. A blond teenager in a mob cap poked her head out of the portal. Squinting, she turned around and examined the incandescent glow. With a wave of her hand, the newcomer quenched the magic circle.

"Hello, Yukari. You're looking cute today." Meiling hid her amazement behind a smile. The Yukari Yakumo floating nearby resembled a truant schoolgirl rather than the glamorous sorceress renowned throughout Gensokyo.

Yukari dimpled prettily and snapped her fingers. The ribboned portal irised wide, allowing the _youkai_ of boundaries to step into Gensokyo. "Thank you, Meiling. I'm trying a new look today."

The dark portal purred, "She's tired of Akane calling her 'Great-Grandmother?' Isn't that right, Granny?"

"Call me 'Aunt'." The border _youkai's_ smile grew strained. "I know Ran taught you manners."

A dun mouseling in a hand-me-down orange dress stepped out into the mist. She gazed up at Yukari with a toothy grin. "But, Granny-" Yukari clamped a hand over the mouseling's mouth.

The Doomkitten staggered out of the portal, laughing.

"I'll deal with you later." Yukari glowered at Chen. As the portal blinked away, she fixed a smile to her lips and turned towards Meiling. "So, why are you at the Gate Between Life and Death?"

"I might ask the same question," Master Kaku said.

"Yuyuko called us here. She has a present for Akane." Yukari released the mouseling.

Akane skipped towards Meiling and, with one final bounce, curtsied. "Do you have one for me, too?"

Meiling glanced over to Master Kaku who, with a grin of her own, nodded. The guardswoman rifled through her pack and pulled out the amber heart pendant by its chain. The mouseling's eyes grew wide as she took the gift from Meiling's hand. Chen helped fasten the new necklace around the mouseling's neck.

Yukari shook her head. "Don't encourage her."

The Gate Between Life and Death swung inward, its heavy wooden beams scraping gravel. Circled by a faint cirrus wisp, a pale girl in green bobbed a greeting. She winced as the two sheathed swords on her back tapped the ground.

"Youmu!" Chen and Akane rushed forward and wrapped their arms around the swordswoman's waist.

Youmu Konpaku held the two girls close. "Miss Ran's almost done cooking for you. We better hurry up before Yuyuko eats up all your surprise."

"I remember you," Master Kaku said. "You made such a cute missionary. Have you studied the Tao today?"

Youmu untangled herself from Yukari's familiars and bowed to the master. "I regret that I have fallen behind in my study."

" _'In holding the soul and embracing oneness, can one be steadfast without straying?'_ " Master Kaku beckoned Youmu to rise.

Youmu's brow furrowed while she wrestled with Master Kaku's words. "What does that mean?"

"Meditate upon the Tao and you shall understand."

Youmu considered the Azurine Hermit's words. The pale girl bowed. "Thank you for your instruction."

Shifting side to side, Akane tugged on Youmu's arm. "You're joking about Lady Yuyuko, right?"

Youmu cast pleading eyes at Meiling, who nodded. With a gulp, the phantom girl mussed the mouseling's hair. "Of course I am. But we should go now. Yuyuko is waiting."

* * *

Languid and lascivious, Yuyuko Saigyounji, the countess of the White Jade Gardens, reclined on her cleopatra throne, her arm draped across her hip. Misty tendrils coiled up from the straw _tatami_ mats. Low murmurs susurrated from shadows skulking behind the walls. . With a flick of her wrist, Yuyuko unfurled a hand fan, hiding all but her glimmering garnet eyes behind the paper veil.

The silhouettes melted away in silence.

Only Meiling's well-drilled bearing kept her from quailing beneath the ghost's cold stare. At her side, Master Kaku waited stoically, unmindful of the scrutiny.

"Why are you here, hermit? Are you so weary of life that you searched me out? If so, you came to the wrong place. This is a warrior's paradise, not a scholar's." Yuyuko's eyes narrowed. "But paradise will not be your reward when you pass on."

The Azurine Hermit clasped her hands and bowed to the Netherworld countess. "Indeed. There is a slight flaw in my character."

The ghostly ruler of the Netherworld Paradise pushed herself upright. "You should have sought Duchess Komeiji's slice of Hell if you are too impatient to wait for your soul's judgement. Don't fret, I can still free you with a word."

A thin carpet of fog rolled over Meiling's ankles. The guardswoman closed her eyes. She would hate to return to Remilia emptyhanded.

"I have no desire to depart from the path of the Tao," Master Kaku said.

"Not even for paradise?"

"A living dog is better than a dead lioness." The mountain sage clasped her hands and bowed.

Pouting, Yuyuko let her fan fall to her side. "No one accepts my offers anymore."

Meiling released a long-held breath.

A wide-eyed ingénue slid open a wall divider and tiptoed through the fog until she stood next to the throne. "If they did, they would never be able to leave," Yukari said.

"Is that so bad?" Yuyuko asked. "A little company is all I ask for."

Rolling her eyes, Yukari sat at the edge of the mat closest to the cleopatra throne and smoothed her skirts into a wide circle around her.

Meiling shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again. "Honored ancestor-"

"Am I an ancestor if I died a maiden?" Yuyuko stretched her hands high into the air, arching her back before she fell on her side. Reclining on her throne, she pointed at Master Kaku with the closed fan. "Besides, you are older than I am."

"It is the custom of our people to entreat the spirits of the departed for favor. Since you are the most powerful, we came to you first," Master Kaku said.

Meiling pivoted around and retrieved her rucksack from the villa's door. Kneeling before the throne, she flipped open the top of her bag and set cloth bundles upon the straw floor. One after another, Meiling tugged on each package's chord. Chocolate, wine, silk, and jewelry, as each new offering was revealed, the shadows behind the walls stirred.

"Flattery and gifts. You know how to turn a girl's head." Yuyuko studied each treasure in turn. "Youmu, darling!"

A wall divider slid open. The pale swordswoman tumbled into the hall, followed by Chen and Akane. Yukari bowed her head as the three girls landed in a heap. Scarlet, Youmu wormed her way out from under the familiars. As Yuyuko's smile vanished behind her fan, the gardener stood and tugged on her skirt and livery until she was once again presentable. Only then did the mist-wreathed girl bow to the court.

"I would hate to see Youmu excluded from the gift giving," Yuyuko pronounced. "Youmu, darling, please wear the butterfly."

With fog trailing behind her, Youmu walked over and cupped the jade barrette in both hands. She clipped the butterfly over her ear and twirled around, to the coos of Akane and Chen. Meiling smiled as Youmu skipped out of the hall, no doubt in search of a mirror.

"I think that her _omiai_ invitations will double now. Youmu gets a new one every day. That cute bunny matchmaker is most persistent." Yuyuko smiled, and the shadows in her hall faded. "But you're not here to steal Youmu away. So what do you want from me?"

"Your help to save six fairies' lives," Master Kaku said.

The fan dropped from Yuyuko's hand. She sat up. "You do know I do the other thing, right? This kiss of death? Well, sometimes it's the firm handshake of death-"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Yukari said. Meiling drew in a deep breath as the coltishness of Yukari's new guise vanished behind the flash of an open fan.

Master Kaku turned her shoulder toward Yukari. "Why should I? Your _onmyodo_ magic is nothing more than a pale imitation of the Tao."

Meiling's mouth dropped open. As pale as any bloodless ghost, she edged away from the Azurine Hermit.

"What you perceive through a glass darkly has been made clear to me." Yukari rose, stately and statuesque, newly clad in the glamour of maturity. "Vivid and colorful."

" _'_ _The five colors blind the eye.'_ "

Meiling watched Yukari's hands. Back at the village, spellcards flew for slighter provocations.

Yuyuko glided between the magicians and held out her hand. "This day is supposed to be one of cheer for Akane. Let us settle this instead with a game instead of a fight." She turned to Master Kaku. "To make things interesting, my answer to your request will depend on your performance."

* * *

With a sigh of relief, Meiling raked the last stroke of a Taoist ward into the vast expanse of white sand surrounding Yuyuko's paradise villa. A score of similar Chinese characters, Japanese copies, and strange _onmyo_ geometries filled the _karesansui_ sand garden, growing thicker as they neared the straw scarecrow posted at the garden's far end. Meiling planted her rake into unmarked sand, leaned against the pole, and watched the paper charms tied to the scarecrow's cross arms flutter in the breeze.

Her butterfly ornament safe inside the manor house, Youmu trudged past, dragging her rake in the sand. "Please don't do that. The _karesansui_ is supposed to resemble a pond of sand, not a schoolhouse chalkboard."

Shrugging, Meiling shook her rake free. She followed behind the phantom gardener, smoothing away her footprints with her rake. The two girls swung wide around a cherry tree, the sole plant in the garden.

As Meiling and Youmu neared the patio deck, the villa door slid open. Yuyuko stepped outside, trailed by Master Kaku, the Doomkitten, and Akane. Meiling shook her head at the crock of cream in the Doomkitten's hand and joined the procession behind Master Kaku. It was Yukari's duty to raise her familiar, but a kitten with unfettered access to cream, like Flandre rifling through Sakuya's secret stash of chocolate liqueurs, would only end in tears.

Yuyuko stopped at the end of the patio. "This will be a witches' trial."

The Doomkitten's ears perked up.

"Shouldn't Marisa be here?" Meiling asked.

"This is supposed to be a test of magical skill, not of who can throw the largest Master Spark," Yukari sang out from the manor house. She carried a goblet of white wine out to the party on the patio. Like an adventuresome youth finding a half-empty wineglass when clearing the dinner table, she quickly tipped the wineglass to her lips. A pleasant flush filled her cheeks. "But I did get the idea from her."

"What are the rules?" Master Kaku stretched her arms in front of her body.

"One spell, one target." Yuyuko waved towards the scarecrow. She mussed Akane's hair. "Impress her. Simple, isn't it?"

"Any spell? Not just combat spells?"

"Even spinning straw into gold." Yukari knelt and cupped her hands to her mouth. She stage-whispered, "Don't try that one, though. I shared that secret with Akane last week."

The mouseling beamed and touched the ends of the yellow bow around her neck. The cloth took on a metallic sheen.

Meiling ran her ribboned braid through her fingers and dreamed of wearing gold. She shook herself awake; the fairies came first.

A flash in the corner of her eye turned Meiling's head. At the other end of the sand garden, the scarecrow blanched until wood, straw, and cloth faded to the hue of sun-bleached bone. The magic wards etched into the sand failed to glow.

"Youmu, you did scare away all the ghosts, right?" Meiling asked.

"Ghosts?" Youmu stammered. The phantom swordsman clung to Meiling's arm with a vise grip. She glanced at the scarecrow, squealed, and buried her head in the Chinese _youkai's_ shoulder. Meiling bit back a laugh. Who would have thought that a phantom would be scared of ghosts? Then Meiling looked out into the garden and froze.

A sickly green glow settled upon the scarecrow as though a will-o'-the-wisp possessed the straw man. Flames kindled along the wooden crossarm, whipped into a blaze by a dust devil's whirls. The spell ward streamers burned to windblown ash. A shimmering puddle of molten sand grew below the straw man. Out in the _karesansui_ garden, the sand wards lit up with a neon glow.

The Netherworld sky darkened as clouds gathered, spiraling around the villa. A waterspout stabbed down from the sky, quenching the fire in a cloud of steam. Water rushed through the garden, smoothing away the lines in the sand. Yuyuko clapped as the torrent relented, leaving the warrior's paradise awash in silt.

"My garden!" Youmu wailed. The phantom groundskeeper buried her face in her hands and slumped to the deck.

As showy as the spell was, Meiling saw more impressive displays of magics every time Patchouli tried to prevent Marisa from pilfering the mansion's library. Crossing her fingers, the guardswoman glanced over at Master Kaku. The Azurine Hermit denied the silent question with a wave of a hand.

Akane hugged Yukari tight. "Was that your magic, Great-Granny?" Shaking her head, the ingénue of boundaries wrapped her arm around the mouseling. "Who did it?"

Meiling's eyes narrowed as the Doomkitten swept a sketch made of sand into the ruined sand garden. Was that a smile she had seen from the Doomkitten before the jug of cream hid the cat _youkai's_ lips?

"It wasn't me," Master Kaku said.

All eyes turned to the ghostly countess. Yuyuko smiled coyly and offered her arm to Akane. At Yukari's prompting, the mouseling clung to her hostess. Yuyuko led Akane inside the manor house. The door slid shut, locking with a loud click.

* * *

Atop a Netherworld terrace carpeted with verdant moss, Meiling clasped her hands and bowed. "Thank you for the match." Splinters from a shattered practice sword surrounded her, standing upright like saplings growing out of the moss.

Youmu brought the _tsuba_ guard of her own practice sword to her eyes in a salute. "It's good to have an appreciative student for once." The ghostly swordswoman knelt, pried loose a clump of moss, and wrapped it around her bloody knuckles. A pair of silvery shades, drawn by the blood, floated nearby.

"Did you grow this moss garden for martial arts training?" Meiling asked. The half-meter layer of moss had been soft and yielding every time Youmu had knocked her down in practice.

"Not really. I don't normally get cut." Youmu applied pressure to the moss bandage. The pale girl glared at the shades until the spirits floated away. "Yuyuko asked for the mossery after she grew tired of rosariums and orchards. This is one of a score of different gardens, from cactus to fernery, within our paradise. The warrior spirits love them, so Yuyuko keeps adding more."

"Which one is your favorite?"

The gardener probed a patch of brown with her finger. "The flowery meade. I collected wildflowers from all over Gensokyo. There's a brook stocked with _ayu_ sweet trout and even an old-fashioned Heian teahouse straight out of Yuyuko's childhood."

Meiling whistled. "Where did you find the time for that?"

"An aspiring swordmaster is expected to demonstrate artistry as well as martial prowess." Using a knife, Youmu pruned away the brown moss. "Is that not also the case with the Chinese?"

The shattered sword at Meiling's feet grew more interesting. "Sure." Did reading _manga_ bodice rippers count?

"Which art-?"

"What will Yuyuko do next?" Meiling slapped a hand over her mouth and groaned. Until the question burst forth, she had tiptoed around it since Yuyuko secluded herself inside her manor home.

It was Youmu's turn to grow captivated by the garden at her feet. "I can't."

"Not even between fellow retainers?" Servants loved to gossip, which suited Meiling just fine.

"You misunderstand me. I cannot tell you because I do not know myself." The petite gardener grew more child-like as she scooped chunks of crumble, like rotted cork, from the pruned moss. "Yuyuko's confided a thousand plans to me, and I still can never guess what she's going to do. But no matter how whimsical her fancies might seem, a purpose always guides her actions."

Meiling gave silent thanks that her own master's desires were more straightforward. What Remilia did not do out of playfulness or hunger, she did out of pride, and when that was wounded-

_"_ _I've decided that I'm still mad at you."_

The guardswoman shuddered. Immediately, she felt the cold press of a forehead against her own. Meiling opened her eyes to Youmu's emerald ones. The petite gardener floated in the air, buoyed by the mists gathering at her feet.

"You're burning up!" Instantly, Youmu appeared behind Meiling, shoving the larger youkai toward the white gravel path that bordered the terrace. "You must return to the manor house. The living cannot wander these gardens for long."

"I'm fine," Meiling called over her shoulder. She tripped over her feet as Youmu pushed her down the path. By the Eight Immortals, the little phantom girl was _strong_. Meiling twisted, and Youmu stumbled past the Chinese _youkai_. Blurring, the phantom appeared behind her, and slammed her tiny hands into the small of Meiling's back. "I just had something on my mind."

A spellcard flashed behind Meiling. The gardens streaked around her in a wall of red-speckled green. Meiling clutched her head and closed her eyes. Finally, she skidded to a stop.

"You'll be safe inside. Ask for the butterfly ginger tea." Youmu's voice grew distant and the pressure against Meiling's back lifted. "Don't forget, stay away from the cherry tree."

Blinking, Meiling found herself at the steps to the White Jade Gardens' manor house. She looked over her shoulder. A thick haze shrouded the path the garden terraces.

"Let me guess, Youmu's worried about Netherworld fever again," a silky voice said.

Meiling whirled around. In front of the door stood a golden flame as tall as a man. She rubbed her bleary eyes. The flame parted into the nine gleaming tails of a fox maiden.

Ran Yakumo craned her head around her tails. "She means well, but the poor deal keeps forgetting that she has a lower body temperature than just about everyone." The fox _youkai_ ran a tortoise-shell through a tail's golden fur. "Youmu's such a sweetheart, though, so we all play along."

"She certainly wouldn't take no for an answer." Meiling turned her shoulder and groaned. Two brown handprints were slapped against the back of her green dress. She reached back and brushed away the moss.

"She takes after Yuyuko in that manner. I pray that will be the only way." Ran bowed her head and murmured a sutra.

Meiling waited for the end of the fox maiden's prayer. "I thought you and Yukari are on good terms with Yuyuko."

"Yuyuko treats me like a broken version of those calculators that the _kappa_ sell. She thinks that if she thumps me hard enough, she will 'fix' me. No matter how hard she tries, it never works to her satisfaction. That doesn't stop her from trying again and again." Gaslight flame engulfed Ran. To Meiling's surprise, neither the fox maiden's fur nor her flowing sleeves caught fire. "For your own sake, stay far away from Yuyuko." In a flash of silver, both fox and fire vanished.

Meiling whistled at the display of magical skill. Marisa, Gensokyo's self-proclaimed master of light magic, could not weave an illusion so fine. Patchouli, for all her elemental prowess over flame, preferred the glow of the crucible to silly light shows, especially after Meiling and Master Kaku had given the alchemical magician a new medicine to craft.

Peering over her shoulder into the mists, the guardswoman pursed her lips. What medicines waited for harvest within Youmu's twenty gardens? Mulberry, licorice, hawthorn or perhaps even the exotic west ocean ginseng, the _yin_ to the _yang_ ginseng bubbling inside Patchouli's maze of glass pipes. Meiling spun around and ran for the white gravel trails that led to Youmu's mossery.

A brilliant gleam burned through the mists, blurring Meiling's vision. Throwing an arm in front of her eyes, she skidded to a stop and waited for the purple streaks to fade from her eyes.

An _odachi_ great sword blocked the gravel path with a drawn blade as tall as a man. It floated in the air, as though a mist-shrouded _samurai_ wielded a challenge. Meiling blinked away the last purple auras in her vision, only to stare at the sword's slicing edge. She backed slowly from the sword. The _odachi_ remained unmoving, like a guard at its post.

When Meiling was ten meters away, almost at the door of the villa, she stopped and held up her hands. "Youmu, is that you?" The guardswoman squinted, searching the white clouds for shadows.

The _odachi_ remained still as rolling fog billowed around the blade, hiding it from view.

Meiling had not expected an answer. The scythe-like handle was too long for the petite swordswoman. Besides, Youmu's speed meant that Meiling could blink and find herself in another part of the White Jade Gardens. As a test, she stepped forward. Gravel crunched under her feet.

Now a mere five meters away, the _odachi_ cleaved through the mists with a mighty swing. A gust of wind roared past Meiling, whipping at her skirt and hair.

She held here hat against her head. "Okay, I won't got farther, whoever you are." Meiling backed away until she bumped against the villa's door. It gave way, and Meiling fell backward into darkness.

* * *

Through a single bloodshot eye, the abyss stared back at Meiling.

At the edge of the guardswoman's attention, Yukari leaned over the table and snapped her fingers in front of Meiling's nose. By the ingénue of boundaries' shoulder, a portal had ripped a midnight tear in space. In that beyond, the eye surged forward, filling the Wushu shield-sized portal with its inky pupil until only the barest ring of white sclera could be seen. "Please answer me."

Like a bird paralyzed by a serpent's stare, Meiling was pinned to her chair. She babbled freely. Starting with the six poisoned fairies found inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she told Yukari everything, from the secret spider shrine hidden underneath the Forest of Magic to the man-cleaving sentinel sword guarding the way to paradise. Yukari listened in silence, even when Meiling's ramblings turned towards the Houraisans' spat at the Kirisame Boutique. Finally, when the river of knowledge had been reduced to a few trickles about _tengu_ celebrity tell-alls, the enigmatic blonde waved her hand.

The portal winked shut.

Meiling still sat transfixed in her chair.

Using the starless aether of her portal magic, Yukari traced a sigil in the air. The endless knot of the Master Word floated before Meiling for an instant before fading away.

Meiling slumped in her chair. She reached for a nearby teacup, but as her fingers brushed against its handle, it rattled in its saucer.

Yukari slid the porcelain cup into Meiling's hand. "You should have found me first."

A long draught of green tea settled Meiling's nerves. She closed her eyes and savored the grassy taste.

Meiling awoke with a start, covering her heart with her hand. "I must have drifted off."

Yukari leaned over the table. "Hold still." She placed the back of her hand against Meiling's forehead.

"I'm fine."

"You don't want to sleep off a fever. At least, not in the Netherworld."

Meiling set her cup aside and rubbed her hands against her pant legs. She exhaled, opening her flows of _chi_. An aura like a cool spring breeze grew from her palms and wrapped around her hands. "No, really, I'm fine. I'd sense a fever in my _chi_."

Yukari pushed Meiling against the back of her chair. "Warrior girls are just as bad as men when they're sick. Now, finish your tea before I fetch Eirin."

Meiling took a sip and puckered her lips. "Youmu told me to drink butterfly ginger tea."

Yukari sat back in her chair. "She would know best." The blonde sorceress clapped twice. Gaslights on the wall popped into flame, bathing the room in light. Wisps poured out of the walls, flying through a maze of ornamental metal screens that sectioned off ovens, stoves, and prep stations into an orderly grid.

A kettle whistled, high and clear. A vapor trail rippled out of the depths of the kitchen, connecting Meiling's table setting to an unseen station via a curtain of fog. The steam shriek relented. A glass serving tray floated along the cloud, the contents of its clear dome occluded by a shell of swirling white. Clutching her teacup, Meiling pressed herself against her chair as the service settled on the table before her. The dome lifted away from the platter, spilling fog out over the table's edge. A steaming porcelain cup, well-worn and patched with gold, remained on the tray.

"Just in case Youmu is wrong…" Yukari reached over, and, from a metal flask the appeared in her gloved hand, poured a clear syrup into the cup. Her eyes, black and without sclera, met Meiling's.

Meiling slid her chair away from the table. "Can I take that to go?"

* * *

Atop the patio deck, Meiling shook the last drops from an overturned teacup. A rainbow sheen spread across the flooded _karesansui_ 's waters like a film of oil. She hated to waste good drink, but the syrup Yukari added had turned the tea into an alchemical experiment instead.

As the last ripple faded from the pool, Meiling set the gold-streaked cup on a window sill. She hoped Patcchouli was closer to finishing the ginseng cure than the stalled negotiations with Yuyuko were. The ghostly ruler of the White Jade Gardens had not been seen since the Doomkitten flooded the _karesansui_. Neither had Master Kaku, for that matter. Instead of dodging swords and unknown poisons, Meilng wanted to spell Sakuya in the mansion's parlor and tend to the six stricken fairies. But the rules of hospitality placed obligations on guests as well as hosts.

With a sigh, Meiling turned and froze. A statue of milky jade and turquoise sat beneath the cursed cherry tree. Meiling leaped over the flooded garden, gliding until her feet landed on the cherry tree's bare root.

The "statue" spoke. "Has Yuyuko chosen the next trial?"

"It isn't safe to linger beneath this cherry tree."

Master Kaku opened her eyes, breaking her meditations. "Has Yuyuko chosen the next trial?"

Meiling leaned against the trunk. As soon as her hand touched bark, she recoiled, stumbling away from the tree. "Not yet."

"Leave me be." The Azurine Hermit closed her eyes.

"You shouldn't stay out here," Meiling said.

"Because of this cherry tree? I hear its voice in my meditations, whispering for me to bask in the light and sleep beneath these branches. I also sense the corpse tangled in the roots below us." Master Kaku barked a cold laugh. "Death has courted me as a cherished prize for fifteen hundred years, yet I've fended off his wine and songs and Casanova charms. This cherry tree has all the allure of a clumsy schoolboy trying to take a kiss."

A slow and soothing whisper called to Meiling by name. The guardswoman backed away from the cherry tree until floodwater lapped at her ankles.

Master Kaku rapped the tree root with her knuckles. "It is rude to chase after another in my presence. I have felled Death's tamed _oni_ for less. I should settle things between you and I with a lit match."

The murmur faded from Meiling's ears. She grabbed the mountain sage's arm. "Let's go."

"It is not the time for action, but for effortless being." Master Kaku chuckled. "It is also time to step out of the water, unless you brought a change of clothes."

Meiling looked at her feet and groaned. The hem of her green dress had grown dark and heavy from the ripples of the pool. She hiked her skirt to her knees and splashed out of the water.

Now on a stretch of sand outside of the reach of the cherry tree's branches, Meiling spun around, freezing in mid-turn. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the hermit meditate. ""You're still not certain that the ginseng will heal the fairies."

"We will keep looking at every new avenue opened to us. Even if some paths, like this cherry tree, are dead ends."

"How does that square with the idea of effortless action?"

_"'_ _The movement of the Tao, by contraries, proceeds."_

Meiling shook her head. Her parents had always warned her of the travails of dealing with the wise. She drew in a deep breath. "What is your interest in helping me?"

The Azurine Hermit meditated on the Tao in silence.

A bell pealed throughout the ruined garden, loud and sonorous. In the courtyard, the Doomkitten swung a wooden ram into a painted bell taller than Meiling.

"Come and get it!" yowled the Doomkitten. The cat _youkai_ hid behind the ram as a sandal flew out of the villa's door.

* * *

Inside paradise's dining hall, six silver sabres danced, each heavy laden by skewered racks of meat. From Parmesan-encrusted pork loin to bacon wrapped chicken breast, the swords served the guests of the White Jade Gardens until their plates overflowed. A poniard circled the tabled, offering sausage-like grilled chicken hearts dripping with lime juice. Meiling waved the blade away, choosing instead from a basket-hilt sword a beef cutlets brushed with garlic butter.

To the guardswoman's right, Ran closed her eyes and turned green. Covering her mouth with her napkin, the fox maiden choked back her gorge. She stabbed a claw towards the empty chair at the head of the table. "She knows I can't eat garlic, citrus, or peppers." As a sop to the fox maiden's exacting diet, snap peas, radish slices, and shaved horseradish in thin ramen broth filled her salad plate. Ran's tails drooped as a brass-belled sabre hovered over her shoulder, offering fillets of lemon-soaked rainbow trout. With a muffled groan, she dashed out of the dining hall.

Ringed by a rainbow of blush wine bottles, rosy cheeked Yukari slumped over the table, caught between giggles and hiccoughs. The jade butterfly fluttered in the air as Youmu, mist-wreathed and determined, played tug-of-war with Chen over a rapier teeming with grilled _ayu_ sweetfish.

In silence, Master Kaku sat, eating a scoop of rice and flowers one long golden grain at a time.

A pipe whistled out a reedy fanfare, accompanied by the martial rumble of a tabor hand drum. The wall dividers at the edge of the hall parted. A mountain of golden fur stumbled into the room as Ran marched backwards from a drawn katana floating in the air, her hands held high. The sword pressed Ran into the room and onto her stool. A cup of milky tea appeared on her plate.

The tabor's loud tattoo crescendoed. Youmu dropped the _ayu_ fish sword and sprang to her feet. Even though Meiling had been hired as a guard, and not a regular soldier, years of training brought her to her own. As the pipe sang a three note parade ground command, she drew herself to attention, to the amusement of the sage and the sorceress.

The drums fell silent as two red-sleeved hands gripped the edge of the open wall divider. Two chocolate-colored mouse ears peeked out from hiding. Akane threw herself into the dining hall, bounced off her hands in a front handspring, and flew high, twisting through the air. The mouseling sidestepped her landing and threw her arms wide in an acrobat's salute, showing off her new clothes. She bounced out of the salute and ran around the table, squeezing hugs as she passed each guest before taking her chair by the head of the table. Only then did she fish out the heart pendant from her collar. The amber glowed like fire against her scarlet blouse.

Meiling grinned as she sat. The mouseling had traded Chen's orange dress for a scarlet Chinese blouse and pants, complete with gold trim. Then again, calling the outfit Chinese was stretching matters. The trousers were more Hunnish than Han, the fabric, an almost denim-like sateen, and the blouse came straight from a Hong Kong movie maker's girl-next-door villager fantasy.

A second fanfare howled through the hall like a winter wind, rooting all to their seats. As the last note died away, Meiling blinked and shook her head.

At the head of the table, Yuyuko appeared, resting on her cleopatra throne. Taking a wineglass from the collection growing around Yukari, the ghostly countess raised it high. "A toast."

Meiling joined the table and raised her glass in response. Impish Yukari, however, raised two.

"To the newest member of Clan Yakumo." Yuyuko said. After the cheer died down, the swords descended upon the dun mouseling. As her plate filled with meats, Akane pointed to Yuyuko's empty placemat. "Aren't you going to eat, too?"

A fan appeared in Yuyuko's hand. With a flick of her wrist, she hid a smile behind the fan's cherry print. "I've been told watching a ghost eat can put a damper on spirits."

Yukari choked on her wine. The ingénue set aside her goblet and coughed into a cloth napkin.

Master Kaku cleared her throat. "And a decision avoided extinguishes joy."

Had Meiling lived out her days in the Chen village, she might have gasped at the affront. But the guardswoman's travels had taken her far from the Middle Kingdom, across the waves to a land where the sun never set upon its forthright people. Years there in the service of Remilia had accustomed Meiling to uncouth confrontation, but not from her countrywomen.

Yuyuko sat upright, rapidly flickering her hand fan open and closed. "That was not an invitation to do the same."

"We are kept waiting for an answer, yet you find the time to lecture me about propriety," Master Kaku said.

"You were always free to leave, unlike most who enter my gardens. Only your desire restrained you." Yuyuko tapped Yukari's shoulder with her closed hand. "Did I get that right, Yukarin? I never was a good Buddhist, despite all the young priests who tried to save my soul."

Yukari shrugged, hunching over her placemat. Using a chopstick as a stylus and sauce for ink, she scribbled lines on a clean plate.

Yuyuko held her fan to her cheek. "I hoped you changed your mind about my offer."

Youmu folded her hands in her lap and grew attentive.

"I must insist on an answer," Master Kaku said.

"It would please me to speed away the uninvited." Yukari set aside her chopstick and tilted the plate upright. Behind Meiling, Ran drew in a hissing breath. The hair rose on Meiling's arms as the fox familiar's immense _chi_ gathered.

Yuyuko snapped open her fan, hiding Yukari's plate behind its cherry blossom print. Ran's chi dissipated. "I admire persistence, but might it be misplaced?" She held up her hand before another could speak. "Before you tell me that you won't leave without an answer, think for a moment. What incentive do I have-?"

"What about the six fairies wasting away at the Scarlet Devil Mansion?" Meiling blurted out.

The table fell silent. Even the serving swords remained still. Yuyuko focused her garnet eyes on Meiling. The guardswoman swallowed a nervous laugh. She had endured thorough inspections from a platoon of sergeants major, but the Countess of the White Jade Gardens stared her down as to judge the guardswoman's soul. Meiling doubted a _youkai's_ vice would be lighter than a feather…

A child's hand tugged on Yuyuko's sleeve. "You'll help them, right?"

Yuyuko closed her eyes. A ghost of a smile crossed her lips. "Of course. Life wouldn't be the same without them. We'll leave after dessert." She opened her eyes and laughed at the quiet. "A sad face might be good for the heart, but this is a feast. Eat, eat!"

* * *

Out on the villa's patio, cut off from Yuyuko's party, Yukari braced Meiling. Gone was the coltish ingénue of the festival, replaced by the sorceress's customary courtier glamour. "You've fallen into bad company."

Fixing her eyes straight ahead, Meiling clasped her hands behind her back and waited out the tirade.

"Don't play the soldier with me. It's been centuries since you were in uniform." Yukari circled the guardswoman. The villa door slid open. Yukari muttered under her breath and turned away. "As you were, missy."

Meiling waited ten heartbeats before she allowed herself the barest upturned hint of a smile.

"I wondered where you were hiding." Yuyuko stepped outside, followed by the animal familiars, Master Kaku, and Youmu. The phantom gardener wore her paired swords on her back.

"A little outside air helps digestion." Yukari drew a closed fan from her sleeve.

"Let's take a walk through Gensokyo, then."

Yukari waved her closed fan through the air. A red-ribboned portal blinked open, tearing an inky rip in space. To Meiling's relief, absent were the eyes which so frequently stared out of whatever abyss Yukari carved her portal from. Instead the darkness rippled like water, fading into the Scarlet Devil Mansion's courtyard. The mansion's door flew open, and a silver-haired maid rushed towards the portal. The _onmyodo_ sorceress snapped open her fan and grinned at Master Kaku. "I win."

Without a word, the Azurine Hermit walked to the portal.

"Let me go first." Meiling held out her arm in front of the sage. Had she seen a glint of steel in Sakuya's hand? Swallowing, the guardswoman strode through the portal, passing out of the Netherworld and back into her home. "Odd, that felt just like walking through a door. I expected something more eventful."

Sakuya appeared in front of Meiling and grabbed the guardswoman by her shoulder. "Meiling, you can't keep inviting guests unannounced. The mistress-" The maid's eyes grew wide as first Youmu, then Lady Yuyuko walked out of the portal, followed by Yukari and her familiars. "What have you done?"


	4. The Onmyo Sorceress

"All things have a root and a top, all events an end and a beginning. Whoever understands correctly what comes first and what follows draws nearer to Tao." _–The Great Learning_ , by the Great Master Kong

* * *

Every room of the Scarlet Devil Mansion held its own story and Sakuya led her guests through its silver-studded halls in pursuit of each one. With an ease honed from thousands of bedtime tales, the maid recited story after story, spurred on by each laugh, gasp, and shriek from Chen, Akane, and Youmu. Sakuya even coaxed Ran, Lady Yuyuko, and Yukari away from their quiet debate with Master Kaku.

Trailing behind the tour, Meiling ground out her penance one mutter at a time.

"You're so inconsiderate, toying with me like this. Do you know how thirsty I am?" Remilia tugged on Meiling's arm. "Blood, blood everywhere, and not a drop to drink."

Her teeth on edge, Meiling waved frantically at Sakuya. But a wall of golden fur stepped in front of the maid as Ran moved to scold her Doomkitten.

"Look at her." Licking her lips, Remilia pointed at Youmu. The phantom swordswoman hung on Master Kaku's every word. "So pale, so pretty, but not pale enough for the current fashion. One little nip would do her and I both a kindness."

As Remilia bared her fangs, Meiling drew in a deep breath, ready to bellow the warning all residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion feared.

"Relax, I'll settle for black pudding and _blutwurst_ , just like Sakuya wants. But can't you see the feast you've laid before me?" Remilia cast a moue before beaming at Meiling with a toothy smile. "Except for the rat. A vampiress must have standards."

"Normally you aren't hungry after a hunt." Meiling slowed, letting the tour pull farther away.

"How was I supposed to know about the soybean harvest?" Remilia shuddered and drew her wings around her body like a cloak. Since arriving in Gensokyo, Remilia had collected odd weaknesses foreign to her European roots.

Meiling chewed her lip as Sakuya led her tour group around a corner. "You make it sound like it's my fault."

The vampiress fixed her cat-like eyes on Meiling. "You ran away," mewed Remilia.

"I went for help."

"Busybodies and vermin infest my home. How is this 'help'?" Remilia scowled at an empty jewelry bezel tacked to the wall. "Remind me to ask Sakuya count the silver after they leave. And don't think that you won't be helping her."

Meiling struggled not to grimace. "Who will watch over the fairies while we are working?"

"Hopefully no one. Patchouli's almost finished distilling her ginseng tincture." Remilia darted ahead of Meiling and twirled about. "The earlier your guests leave, the sooner your count will end. Better hurry."

As the vampires skipped backwards through the hall, the walls around Meiling groaned, warping as Sakuya's power ebbed away. The guardswoman darted after Remilia. "Wait up!"

She caught up with Remilia and Sakuya's tour in front of the gilded doors of the mansion's library and breathed a sigh of relief. Traditionally, her library was the final step on Sakuya's tours of the mansion, and no tour was complete without a visit.

Sakuya clapped her hands, drawing all eyes to herself. With a sweep of her outstretched arm, the library's double doors swung open on their own. After years of watching the maid's parlor tricks, Meiling noticed the flicker in Sakuya's pose that betrayed the methods of her showmanship–and how the maid's gestures drew her audience's gaze away from the now open dumbwaiter behind her. Meiling half-expected a petite but daring blond witch to dive inside the cupboard.

Meiling pursed her lips and beckoned the chief maid to hurry. Not only did Sakuya's showmanship keep her audience's attention focused on her, it prolonged the tour. Those silver coins lining the walls could not count themselves.

Akane cooed at the vast hedge maze of books. "How many books are here?" The mouseling's soft-spoken words cut through Meiling's reverie. Behind the mouseling, the Doomkitten struggled to keep a straight face.

Sakuya mulled over the question "I lost track after Patchouli bought her first hundred thousand. Perhaps Koakuma will have a better count."

"She won't miss one, then." The mouseling clutched a cozy mystery to her chest.

Sakuya struggled not to smile. "We can make arrangements with Patchouli if you fancy a specific title. And even if you don't, I can offer a suggestion or two." The mouseling glowed as she ran her hand across the spines of a bookshelf.

"Later, Akane," Yukari dragged Akane away from the bookshelves by her tail. "We came here to see the fairies."

Meiling winced as Sakuya beamed at the suggestion. Give Sakuya a chance to show off, and all common sense fled the normally elegant maid. Instead of ending the tour, Sakuya range a brass hand bell.

Six fairy maids bustled out of the bookshelves and lined the aisle. Ruby-lipped Silk stood ramrod straight while her sisters shifted around her. Meiling nodded in approval. She demanded greater precision from raw recruits, but for fairies, this was parade ground discipline. Sakuya glowed with pride.

"This is not what I meant." Ran's sudden sneezing fit interrupted Yukari. The _onmyo_ sorceress snapped open her fan and shielded her face. Ran shrank away from Yukari, sniffling as she covered her face and ducked behind a bookshelf.

Sakuya bobbed a quick curtsy. "Please forgive me, but it's rare that my staff here can attend to a party of your esteem."

"Other that your monthly soirees?" Lady Yuyuko said from behind her fan. Thin wisps of mist coiled around her feet.

"These are library maids." Sakuya turned away before she could see Meiling's motions to hurry and Remilia's scowl. "Patchouli keeps them too busy to join our fun."

Ran swayed out into the aisle. She steadied herself against the bookshelf and hid a handkerchief up her voluminous sleeves. With a wan grin, she rubbed her bloodshot eyes. "Please excuse me. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I'm coming down with the spider's flu."

Meiling froze, gathering her _chi_. Just the day before, she fought a clutch of spider youkai in their underground lair. Next to her, Master Kaku tensed, palming a spellcard. So did Silk.

"I keep a proper household," protested Remilia. The vampiress's wings fluttered enough to lift her a meter over the library floor.

Ran clenched her eyes and sniffed the air. "Really? This library is full of their scent." The fox maiden doubled over, sneezing.

"Oh, my, and Patchouli just had the library fumigated." Sakuya plucked a cozy mystery from a shelf and handed it to Akane.

Books crashed to the floor. Meiling whirled around into a ready stance. Below an empty set of shelves, Silk cowered in the center of a pile of hardbacks, shielding her blond head with her arms. After one last book fell, the tall fairy maid breathed a sigh of relief and stood, fussing with the crown of braids in her hair.

Meiling's eyes narrowed. Her spiderette nemesis had worn a similar crown during their underground fight the day before. The guardswoman's hands balled into fists. "Where were you yesterday?" she demanded.

"Meiling!" Sakuya scolded. Silver filled the maid's hand.

Silk met the guardswoman's eye and flashed her fangs. She grabbed her silk wings. Tearing them free, the spiderette threw the four webs at the tour group. Meiling grazed past the webs, which wrapped Youmu, Lady Yuyuko, Yukari, and Sakuya in silk cocoons. Fairy maids screamed, scrambling out of Meiling's path as the guardswoman lunged at the spy. The spiderette ducked out of Meiling's grasp and dashed into the library maze, flinging _danmaku_ behind her.

Meiling bounced off the bookshelf. Grazing through the _danmaku_ spray, the guardswoman chased Silk through the web the spiderette wove through the library's shelves. Magic circles appeared on the shelves around Meiling, absorbing _danmaku_ before the shot could scorch Patchouli's books.

An orange and green streak bounded past Meiling. Laughing, Chen flung icicles and hexes at the fleeing spiderette. Actinic light bathed the library as wards protected the books. The floor, however, froze over, sparkling with imbued curses. Meiling soared over a spreading patch of ice and ducked down an aisle untouched by _danmaku_ and spells.

Leaving the chase to Chen, Meiling relied on her knowledge of the library–and no small amount of luck–to herd Silk towards the far corner of the library. Every time the spiderette spun another loop in her web of turns and switchbacks through the bookshelf maze, she found Meiling running towards her, blocking off paths that led toward the exit. Finally, Meiling and Chen trapped Silk against a back wall.

The spiderette pressed up against a nearby bookshelf, flinging whorls of _danmaku_ with one hand while she fiddled with a cupboard.

Meiling lunged at Silk, hurling spell cards at the spiderette. Magic flared from the detonating cards, erasing rings and shells of _danmaku_ shot with every pulse.

The cupboard slid open. Silk threw herself into the dumbwaiter's maze of ductwork.

Meiling rebounded off the wall, spilling books from the shelves. The guardswoman pursed her lips as she studied the dumbwaiter. A thousand games of hide-and-seek with the Scarlet sisters had taught her the futility of squeezing through the cupboard door. Only little girls, snake-hipped witches, and now trap-door spiders could crawl through the dumbwaiter's shaft.

With a yowl, the Doomkitten dove into the spiderette's bolthole. Books cascaded off the shelves as thumps and crashes hammered the wall from within. A metallic twang, like an overstretched spring snapping, echoed from the open cupboard.

A lull in the cacophony settled over the library. Chen tumbled out of the dumbwaiter, tangled in a net of cobwebs. She sprawled out in the center of the aisle and stared up at the library's lights. "She got away," the Doomkitten cried.

* * *

Hidden in the heart of her bedroom's sofa cushion fortress, Flandre huddled at the head of her casket bed, clutching her pillow. While Meiling swept through the nooks and crannies of the mansion for Silk, the littlest vampiress had braved the tumult long enough to drag the cushions off the nearest furniture and into her room. But now, whenever Meiling bumped into the pillow barricade, Flandre squirmed, squeezing her pillow until stuffing poked out of the seams. "Did you check under the bed?"

Forcing a smile, Meiling reached over the waist high wall and squeezed Flandre's shoulder. "I even checked it three times."

"Could you check again?"

"Sure." Meiling closed her eyes as she slid open a path through the fortress's wall. Her heart fell as Flandre whimpered. The guardswoman knelt and flipped up the bed's skirt. If Silk was foolish enough to secret herself in the last hiding place in Flandre's bedroom, Meiling would squash the spiderette under her boot. "There are no monsters under the bed, just the one on top."

At first, Flandre flinched, but her eyes lit up. The littlest vampires stood on her bed and belted out her best wolfman growl. Awed by Flandre's sudden courage, Meiling gave her best Fay Wray shriek.

As laughter filled the room, Meiling wrapped her arms around Flandre. "I have to go." Meiling's heart fell as Flandre squeezed her tighter. "Someone has to check under Remilia's bed."

"Send Sakuya to do it," Flandre whispered.

"She's checking the fairies' rooms." Meiling gave her one last hug and stood. "I'll ask her to tuck you in for your nap, though."

Flandre crushed the pillow in her arms. "Promise?"

"Of course." Meiling slid the standing cushion back into place. Flandre's fortress stood unbroken. "I'll even ask her to read you a story."

The casket creaked as Flandre stretched out and wrapped a blanket around herself. "Could you tell her to hurry?"

"I'll try." Meiling stepped aside and closed the door behind her. Slumping against the wall, she wiped her eyes. As goosebumps prickled up the guardswoman's arms, her breath hung in clouds before her. Meiling breathed warmth into her hands. "Did you find Silk?"

"Not yet." Youmu loomed near the guardswoman. The vapors around the phantom gardener gathered into a thunderhead. She licked her lips. "Chen found Silk's nest."

"Show me."

Youmu led Meiling through the silent halls. Even after Sakuya removed her power over time and space from the mansion, the Scarlet Devil Mansion still dwarfed any building found in the village. Yet the walls crowded around Meiling. Every shadow the guardswoman passed taunted her.

"What did you find there?" Meiling asked.

Youmu climbed a staircase. "I would rather you saw for yourself with fresh eyes."

The swordswoman scowled as she passed a suit of plate armor holding a _kriegsmesser_ sword. At her side, her ever-present wisp darkened into a thundercloud. "Why would anyone add a cross-hilt to a perfectly good katana?"

Meiling shrugged. When she had worked in Europe, the Way of the Gun had long been ascendant. "Can't you just tell me what you found?"

Youmu walked in silence, flashes rippling through the cloud trailing behind her. She pushed open a pair of double doors.

Meiling stepped into the ballroom and shielded her eyes from the gleaming gilded walls. The empty ballroom was pristine, perhaps the only room in the Scarlet Devil Mansion that met Sakuya's exacting standards of cleanliness. At the far end, flanked by precise stacks of tiles, a wardrobe stood against the wall, the solitary piece of furniture in the ballroom.

Atop the wardrobe, the Doomkitten drank a bottle of milk, kicking her legs. "Check inside." Chen thumped her heels against the wooden door.

Meiling skirted a half-finished mosaic of Remilia on the floor and threw open the wardrobe. Like the ballroom, it was bare. She leaned inside, ducked under the Doomkitten's feet, and searched the corners for gaps. "This can't be what all the fuss is over."

The Doomkitten dropped from her perch. Before Meiling could whirled around, the Doomkitten shoved her into the wardrobe. Meiling threw her arms out to catch herself, but fell through a silkscreen curtain. She stumbled into a walk-in closet lined by an open cabinet. Silk linens draped the inside of the cupboard.

Youmu squeezed past Meiling. "How could anyone live here?"

"She slept inside, sitting upright. This is a _bedstehe_ closet-bed. It's strange at first to sleep in, like you are a doll on display, but it's cozy on a cold night." Meiling drew in her stomach and shifted around Youmu until both women fit inside the closet.

"You actually fit inside one of these? I don't think I could, and you're taller than me." Youmu peered inside the cabinet and shuddered.

"Not one this small, and only when Remilia had business in Holland." Meiling rapped her knuckles against the frame. "Are you sure this was Silk's? This would be snug for Flandre."

"Humans," the Doomkitten mewed from outside the wardrobe. "Maybe if I rubbed your nose in the stink for once, you'd smell the spider."

"Scat, cat," Meiling called over her shoulder.

Laughing, the Doomkitten scurried up the wardrobe, stomping around until she dangled her head over the edge. Somehow, her green cap stayed on her head as she watched upside down from her new perch.

Rolling her eyes, Meiling knelt and ran her fingers along the molded trim beneath the _bedstehe's_ door. A chill grew inside the closet as Youmu shifted her feet. "Relax," Meiling ordered.

Youmu froze, but tendrils of mist wafted from the floor. "Sorry."

Meiling exhaled sharply, ignoring her clouding breath. Her fingers brushed against a hidden latch. A drawer sprang open, barking Meiling's shin.

"Dibs!" the Doomkitten mewed. "I called dibs. Whatever you found is mine."

"Remilia will disagree." Meiling rubbed her leg. Kneeling, she riffled through the drawer, setting aside folded clothes. A bundle of broadsheets laid underneath. Meiling whistled. "Patchouli's not going to be happy."

"Mine!" the Doomkitten called.

Youmu read over Meiling's shoulder. "I don't think you want these. The articles are all about Youkai Mountain." She waited while Meiling flipped through the stack. "Mining surveys, exploration reports, underground treaties; none of it is bedtime reading."

"Unless you're Patchouli." Meiling turned a page and stopped. "Have you heard of a Golden Room?"

Youmu shook her head. "Perhaps you should ask Lady Yuyuko."

With a shrug, Meiling handed the papers to Youmu and dug deeper. Inside a toiletry bag, she found a metal lipstick tube. Turning towards the light from the ballroom, she uncapped the tube, revealing a hauntingly familiar shade of ruby gloss. She held the makeup to her nose and sniffed. "I need to get this to Koakuma for testing."

* * *

Meiling stormed through the silver-studded halls, holding a tightly wound bundle of bandages at arm's length. Inside the bundle, a needle-thin glass pipette held a drop of _kuu_ poison tar. Despite Koakuma's assurances of safety, Meiling wanted that sliver nowhere near her skin. Once she showed Remilia proof of the poisoner's identity, she would fling the pipette and the bandages into the incinerator with relish.

A living shadow blotted out the closest gas lamp, throwing the hallway into darkness. Meiling dropped into a combat stance, hiding the bundle behind her back. She gathered her _chi_ into her _dantian_ , the center point of her body. Moving her head side to side, Meiling relied on her peripheral vision as she sought the edges of the shadow in the darkness. The guardswoman clenched her fist, cracking her knuckles. "Let this be Silk," she begged her ancestors.

The shadow shrank away from the gaslight, splashing to the floor like a tarry drop of rain. Meiling shielded her eyes from the lamp's renewed brilliance, blinking away purple afterimages from her vision. The shadow drew in on itself, contracting as it resolved into a pillar the height of a child. Two bat wings poked out from the darkness, then Remilia swayed free.

The vampiress wobbled towards the wall, planting her hand near a tacked-up _real_ coin. Recoiling from the silver, Remilia bared her fangs at the _real_. "I told you to get rid of your guests."

Meiling unwrapped the bandage bundle. Her _chi_ dissipated from her belly, flooding her skin with warmth. "I found the hidden source of the _kuu_ poison." She held out her hand. Nested within the wadded streamers of white linen and squeezed within a glass sliver, a drop of green goo gleamed in the gaslight. "The poison was in Silk's belongings."

"You took this long to figure that out? I knew as soon as she ran away." Remilia glared up at Meiling. "Meanwhile, you let Yukari set up a debating society in my home."

Meiling sighed. "I was with Flandre."

Remilia froze. "Oh." The vampiress bowed her head. "Is she—?"

Meiling crumpled the cloth bandages into a ball around the poisoned pipette. "She's fine. I talked her into taking a nap, but she wants Sakuya to tuck her in."

Remilia's shoulders fell. "Did she ask for me?"

"Flandre knows that her big sister will be fine, no matter what happens. After all, you can walk outside during the day." Meiling feigned a bright smile as she tied off the ends of her cloth bundle.

"Not just any vampire can survive the sun's light." Remilia preened as she boaster. Glass shattered down the hall, and Remilia jumped, wrapping her wings tight around her body. "But could even the Son of the Dragon handle Yukari?"

"Pardon?"

"Forget I said anything. All this silver is making me jumpy." Remilia pointed at the toned coins tacked to the walls.

Meiling changed the subject. "The ginseng cure is almost ready."

"Hopefully it will work. I want no one in Gensokyo to think we can't solve our own problems." Shuddering, Remilia cast a furtive glance down the hall. "I have a hard enough time keeping the _tengu_ , the _tanuki_ , the _kappa_ , and the rabbits from playing their games around here as is. So your guests need to go. Just in case your ginseng does not work."

"Lady Yuyuko is a key part of Master Kaku's cure," Meiling cut in.

"Fine, she can stay, along with her delicious servant. At least get Yukari and her vermin out of my house." Remilia grabbed her wingtip and drew it in front of her face like a cape. The vampiress vanished in a swirl of shadow. "Do it, now."

Meiling pressed herself against the wall as the shadow billowed down the hall like smoke. If Remilia doubted that the Son of the Dragon could remove Yukari, how did she expect a daughter of a dragon to fare any better?

The guardswoman glanced at her hands and recoiled from the poisoned bundle she held. She bobbled the bandage ball between her hands until she finally caught hold of it. Meiling hurried through the silver-starred halls towards the incinerator. After a quick pitch of the bandages into the chute, the guardswoman brushed her hands clean against her pants and sighed. The incinerator's flames now licked at the last of the _kuu_ poison in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, so Meiling no longer needed to worry that more girls might join Berry, Clover, and their sisters sleeping in the infirmary parlor.

"Please, keep that open," Sakuya said.

Meiling spun around. The elegant maid stood in front of her, holding a dustpan full of shattered glass. "Another training accident?" Not only did the fairy maids resemble young girls, they were just as uncoordinated.

Sakuya reached past Meiling, rose flooding her cheeks. "I did it."

"Are you feeling okay?" Meiling stared at the chief maid.

Sakuya emptied the dustpan into the chute. She glanced over at Meiling and cast a moue, slamming the chute shut. As Meiling flinched, a smile flashed across Sakuya's lips. "May Remilia forgive me, I dropped it on purpose."

Immediately, Meiling placed the back of her hand against Sakuya's forehead. The maid pulled away from her touch. "You don't feel feverish. Did you hit your head?" Meiling turned Sakuya's head towards the gaslight, checking the size of the maid's pupils. "That's not it. Is that darn cat flinging her hexes everywhere again?"

"Would you stop that?" Sakuya jerked her head free from Meiling's hand. "I'm fine. I just had to get away from Yukari and your Taoist master." The maid's placid elegance cracked as she shuddered.

"How bad is it? Remilia wants me to go in there after them." Meiling eyed the far end of the hall. A small flock of fairy maid burst out of a room, scattering throughout the mansion.

Sakuya brushed lint from her uniform, settling back into her practiced calm. "Remember when Reimu and Sanae both had their eye on the same boy?" That _danmaku_ storm had swept across Gensokyo for a week, ending only when both shrine maidens walked in on Alice stealing a kiss.

A hand bell rang out, shrill and insistent. Meiling hung her head. "I promised Flandre that you would tuck her in before her nap."

Sakuya's eyes shone in the gaslight. "I'll take care of her right now." The maid vanished, and the ringing stopped.

"Don't take too long, I need your help," Meiling called down the hallway. The guardswoman stretched her arms over her head. Stifling a groan, she set off towards the Lucia Weston Ballroom, where Remilia usually entertained her guests.

As she wove through the groups of fairy maids bustling through the mansion, Meiling couldn't help but smile. Since Yukari and her familiars made themselves home after Silk's escape, the Scarlet Devil Mansion slowly returned to life. For the first time since Berry and her sisters fell ill, the mansion felt like normal, like home. It would be a shame if that assurance vanished as soon as Yukari stepped outside the mansion's gates. Perhaps Meiling should wait a little longer before asking them to leave.

_Delayed duty is derelict duty._

As the ancient maxim echoed in her mind, Meiling set off towards the Weston Ballroom, weaving through the flocks of fairy maids crowding the hall. As she reached the gilded double doors of the ballroom, Meiling exhaled sharply and grabbed the ornate brass handles. Instead of opening the door, the guardswoman pulled herself against it, pressing her ear into the wood. Meiling held her breath and waited for her blood to stop pounding in her ear.

Ceramic pottery rattled by her elbow. Meiling leapt away from the door, spinning into a low _tai chi_ crouch, one leg extended straight out in front of her. She stared up at a stern fairy maid fussing with a tea setting atop a folding tray.

"I know we taught you better than that." The maid's glower cracked, revealing a mischievous grin. "When spying, listen from the keyhole."

Fire crept into Meiling's cheeks. "Thank you, Autumn." The guardswoman knelt by the keyhole.

Autumn waved the thanks away. "Don't mention it. Just play with us more often. We'll make a proper fairy out of you yet." The fairy maid vented steam from a kettle and skipped away.

"She's right, you know." As Sakuya spoke, Meiling grit her teeth. "But then every proper maid knows how to eavesdrop discreetly."

"I'm better at catching eavesdroppers," Meiling whispered.

"Are you?" A smile graced Sakuya's lips. The maid spied the tea setting and sighed. "I wish I could wait out here longer."

The door swung outward, bowling Meiling over. The guardswoman tumbled once and rolled to her feet.

Lady Yuyuko stepped out of the ballroom. She spotted Sakuya by the tea setting and clapped her hands together. "Teatime, already?" Sakuya backed away as the ghost queen crowded the tray. Lady Yuyuko reached for a plate of sweet rolls. For an instant, Meiling saw in her mind's eye the flash of rending teeth.

"I should have left some for Yukari." Lady Yuyuko wiped her mouth with a napkin.

Meiling stared, mouth agape, at the tea setting. Not a single crumb remained on the tray.

Sakuya inched away from Lady Yuyuko. "I can get more."

"There's no need to do so, not on my account, anyway. I was about to check that Youmu and Akane weren't dragging Koakuma into even more trouble." As she walked away, Lady Yuyuko glanced into the ballroom. "Besides, they need tea more than I do."

Meiling tiptoed towards the open door and glanced around the jamb.

"Come on in, Bell, you aren't interrupting," Master Kaku said. Wincing, Meiling ducked back behind the wall. Switching over to classical Chinese, the Azurine Hermit snapped, "Don't even think of hiding. I saw you talking in the hall."

"You need to play with the fairies more." Sakuya poured water from the kettle into a circle or heavy ceramic mugs.

"You aren't helping." Meiling closed her eyes, gathering first her _chi_ and then her calm. She stepped into the ballroom and shivered. A chill lingered in the room, and not from Lady Yuyuko's passing.

Yukari and Master Kaku sat at a round table, staring at Meiling like statues of marble and porcelain. The guardswoman stopped in her track and clasped her hands behind her back. Rather than meet either sage's eyes, Meiling counted the folds in the blackout curtains that sectioned off the rest of the ballroom. Drawing upon decades of dressing-downs, Meiling waited out the silence.

Yukari cleared her throat. "You must move their heads away from the northeast." Yukari tapped the placemat with the tip of her closed fan. Sakuya appeared with a steaming mug in each hand.

"Just because the word for the northeast gate, _kimon_ , sounds like the word demon?" Master Kaku waved away Sakuya with her own fan, then covered her left ear with its paper leaves. Sakuya's eyes grew wide as she set the mugs on the table before backing away from the two sages.

Meiling pursed her lips as she followed the movements of Master Kaku's fan. It had been decades since Meiling last entertained callers from behind the paper leaves, however she remembered well the secret language of the fan. When Master Kaku hid her left ear with her fan, she told Yukari, _I wish to be rid of you_.

Yukari tittered behind her fan, letting it rest on her left cheek. _No_. The _onmyo_ sorceress said, "Should I instead say we must shelter the fairies from the harsh influences of Genbu, the Black Tortoise of the North?"

"In my day, sages did not rely on short cuts." Master Kaku snapped her fan shut, cutting the sticks across her palm. "Do the math. The influences of the sun, the stars, and the moon must be accounted for."

Meiling unclasped her hands. Even the most carefree of fairies would recognize the challenge made by the Azurine Hermit's fan. Spellcards flew for less.

Yukari closed her fan and fenced the air with its point as though she conducted an unseen orchestra. _Don't be rash._ The sorceress threw back her head and laughed. "Tell me, are you familiar with Kepler and Brahe?"

Sakuya vanished and reappeared behind Meiling, sheltering in the guardswoman's shadow.

Master Kaku's eyes narrowed. "I was sealed away for a thousand years. My survey of the intervening Learned Masters of the Tao is not yet finished."

Yukari set aside her fan. After selecting a mug from the table, the sorceress reclined in her chair. "You won't find them there, yet they are the two most important of astrologers, both for your Taoist astrology and my _onmyodo_."

"I am aware of the two new planets, Uranus and Neptune, and the ring of shattered debris of a third between Mars and Jupiter," Master Kaku said.

"Yet you still cling to your old ways?" Yukari flashed her teeth at Master Kaku. Meiling backed into Sakuya, for she had seen similar smiles on cats stalking the plumpest of songbirds. Yukari licked her lips. "Have you ever stopped to consider what marvels have been discovered in other fields? Eirin Yagokoro's shelves overflow with powders and poultices unknown in your time, and Sumireko Usami brings more from the outside apothecaries with each new visit."

Shrugging, Master Kaku reached up and fiddled with the hairpins binding her coiffure. Meiling pursed her lips when she saw the card cupped in the Azurine Hermit's hand.

"I wish you were with me when the wisest Ming sages challenged the foreign disciples of Kepler to the most scholarly of duels. Both sage and disciple would consult their arts to determine the time and the length of the next eclipse.

"As Judge Xu Guangji waited, the sages consulted their analects, clacked their abacuses, and declared that a two hour eclipse would start at 10:30 on the following day. The disciples took longer, using their far-seeing glass to measure the positions of the sun and the moon. After consulting with tables of ephemerides sent from their master in the Germanies, they claimed the eclipse would begin at 11:30 and last for two minutes. Wouldn't you know it, the sky darkened at 11:30 the next day.

"It took thirty years of losing challenge after challenge for the sages to admit the virtue of Kepler's way." Yukari sat up and bored her brown eyes into Master Kaku. Her voice grew hard. "I won't let you wait that long. Once your tisane fails, I will take over the fairies' treatment."

The room fell silent as all eyes fell upon Master Kaku. The Azurine Hermit held Yukari's gaze without blinking. She folded her hands atop the table, one over the other, with a spell card hidden underneath.

"Say something," Meiling whispered to Sakuya.

The maid clung to Meiling's shoulders. "Why me?"

"Because you're better at calming people than I am."

The door creaked open. Meiling grimaced as Sakuya dug her fingers into her shoulders. The two sages, however, continued their staring contest.

Patchouli shuffled into the room, careful not to step on the hem of her floor-length lab coat. A brimstone stink rolled in with her. Meiling covered her nose with a handkerchief. The alchemist presented a stoppered Erlenmeyer flask. "It's finished—"

Patchouli frowned as the milky liquid inside the flask caught the chandelier's light. She twisted free its cork. She grabbed the salt shaker from the tea setting and poured it into the glass. By silent agreement, Master Kaku and Yukari set aside their contest of wills while the elemental alchemist worked.

"Won't that ruin it?" Sakuya stepped out from Meiling's shadow. She appeared next to Patchouli, pulling the alchemist's hand with the salt shaker away from the flask. A line of table salt spilled across the table.

"Let me be. I don't tell you how to sweep floors." Patchouli pulled her arm free from Sakuya's grasp and upended the salt shaker into the flask. After the last of the salt splashed into the slurry, the alchemist swirled the flask. To Meiling's surprise, the liquid settled into two layers, milky white above a film of clear water. Patchouli fished an eye-dropper from her coat. With practiced care, she drew off the clear layer of brine from the solution. "Now the cure is ready."

* * *

The flask that held the ginseng cure swung like a censer from Patchouli's hand as the alchemist led a silent procession towards the infirmary parlor. Meiling marched behind Patchouli at the head of the single file train snaking through the mansion. As the alchemist neared each throng of maids, the fairies hugged the walls, only to fall in at the end of the line when the procession passed. Even Remilia stood aside, but with an outstretched wing, the vampiress instead cut in front of Meiling and claimed the place of honor. After a long silent walk, Patchouli halted the procession before the fairies' infirmary parlor.

The door creaked open, but a mountain of golden fur walled the world out of the parlor. "Please wait a moment." Ran planted her hands against the doorjamb. Behind the fox maiden familiar, Youmu climbed a stepstool and hung the last of eight pine boughs from a clothesline stretched across the room. "We are not yet ready."

Meiling stumbled forward as the crush of visitors drove elbows into her back. "How much longer?" She winced as a bat wing slapped against her thigh will the force of a wooden staff.

"Just one moment." An onyx ornament featuring five bats in flight dangled from Youmu's fingers. The pale gardener hung it between the pine boughs. "Now we're ready."

"We only have room for seven. Please come in." Ran stepped away from the door and curtsied. Patchouli entered, glassware clinking from inside her long coat with each step.

Meiling's brow furled. Before she could ponder Ran's odd request, Sakuya and Remilia shoved her into the parlor. She skidded to a stop, crumpling to the floor before she crashed into the sleeping Clover's bed. A blast of wind chilled Meiling as Lady Yuyuko glided past.

"No more." Ran filled the doorway after Yukari and Master Kaku entered. Koakuma and a court of fairy maids pleaded with her. The fox familiar bared her fangs. "You can still watch from outside."

Meiling noticed groups of white beans and black-eyed peas set around the edge of the edge of Clover's cushioned bier. A shadow fell over the guardswoman.

Master Kaku poked one trio of beans with her hairpin. "I did not ask for your help."

Yukari shrugged, hiding her expression behind the flick of a cherry blossom fan. The numerologist's brown eyes peeked over the paper leaves, dancing with mirth.

Meiling rolled upright to a formal kneeling position. She rubbed her eyes and stared again at the beans. This time, she recognized the eight groups of three beans, set at each of the compass points around Clover. Black-eyed peas and white beans marked the _yin_ and _yang_ lines of the eight Ba Gua trigrams. Similar rings circled the other five fairies. "What custom is this? I haven't seen this in China or Japan."

"It's inspired by mountain magic from a land called _Aux Arcs_ , the Land of the Arches." Yukari breathed a quiet sigh. She muttered, "Or at least that was its name on my first visit."

Remilia climbed Meiling's shoulders. Meiling winced as the vampires ground her feet into her muscles. The vampiress reached for an ornament of five bats set in jasper, a twin in all but color of the onyx bats in the center of the room. "Is this mine?"

"If you wish. Please let it stay for a moment. Bats are a charm for good health," Yukari said.

Meiling mulled over the combinations of numbers and colors. She found three other flocks of bats set in gold, pearl, and jade, matching the colors of Chinese alchemy. Her eyes grew wide. Whether bats, pine boughs, or plum blossoms, health charms filled the parlor in groups of three, five, and eight. "Lucky numbers," she whispered.

On a whim, Meiling counted the people in the parlor. Nine nurses attended the six fairies, or three threes of helpers, a number known to be an auspicious omen. Counting the sick and the hale together, there were also three fives of people in the room, another lucky grouping. Meiling's head spun. Was this how _onmyouji_ and sages saw the world?

In the corner, Patchouli cleared space on an end table. "Sakuya, could you please bring tea?" The elegant maid flickered for an instant, reappearing with two full tea settings on stands. Patchouli took six cups and poured ginseng extract into each one. The master alchemist dropped a sugar cube into each cube, stirring each with a metal spoon until the sugar dissolved.

"What's the sugar for?" Remilia flew across the room. Meiling sighed and rubbed her shoulders.

"Medicine is bitter. That's how you know it works." Sakuya poured tea for Yukari and Lady Yuyuko.

"But all my medicines have been sweet."

"Would you have drank it otherwise?"

Remilia's eyes grew as big as saucers. "Oh!"

Patchouli tapped the spoon against a cup and set it on a napkin. Picking up the nearest teacup by its saucer, she walked towards Berry's bed. The cloud of nurses and sages parted before her.

"Why not use a syringe like Eirin and Reisen would?" Mist swirled around Youmu like a thick cloud.

"This is a vampire's house," Sakuya said. "By ancient decree, no blood is to be shed except for meals."

Patchouli knelt by Berry's shoulder, holding the ginseng tincture in both hands. The nine nurses ringed the fairy's bed. Ran crooned softly and pulled Youmu and Sakuya away from the circle. The fox maiden led the two servants towards the opposite side of the room, careful not to walk too close to any fairy. Even Meiling knew that three and one made four, the number of death. Six nurses remained around Berry, forming a group of seven, the number of perfection.

Meiling shook her head. She was a guardswoman; thinking like a sage made her head hurt. "Are you certain this will work?" she whispered to Master Kaku.

The Azurine Hermit hid her expression behind a fan of her namesake color and knelt by Berry's feet. Her hawk-like eyes narrowed as she waited.

Lady Yuyuko sat regally at the head of Berry's bed. A pale luminescence shone from the Ghost Queen's hands as she cradled the raven-haired fairy's head.

Remilia settled in Meiling's lap. "I feel like I should say something. Or, worse, pray," she whispered to her guardswoman, shuddering.

"Let Patchouli lead. It's her medicine," Meiling suggested.

"You mean it's hers." Remilia pointed at Master Kaku. The sage sat, serene and unmindful of the vampiress's whispers.

Patchouli cleared her throat. "Please prop Berry up." Yukari lifted the slight fairy by her shoulders so that Remilia could slide pillows beneath the girl until she sat nearly upright. Once the fairy settled again in her bed, Patchouli slipped two fingers behind Berry's jaw, opening her mouth. Patchouli held the teacup to Berry's lips and tipped the ginseng extract into her mouth.

Meiling drew in a deep breath and waited.

Color bloomed in Berry's face, turning porcelain cheeks into rosy flesh. The fairy maid gasped, and her skin burned scarlet before all color ebbed away, leaving only a greying pallor. Meiling covered her mouth, blinking back tears. Berry's wings wilted, curling inward like drying leaves until tiny wrinkled balls remained. With one final rasp, Berry grew still.

Tears welled up in Meiling's eyes as she prayed to the gods of the ten directions, to the fairy warriors, and to her honored ancestors.

Immediately, Lady Yuyuko slid her left hand over Berry's mouth, punching the fairy's nose shut with her thumb and forefinger. The Ghost Queen's right hand shot out, snatching a thin white wisp out of the air. Lady Yuyuko plunged that hand deep into Berry's chest and held the wisp in place. The Ghost Queen's eyes grew wide as white light flared from the fairy's chest. She jerked her hands away from Berry, shaking her now scarlet fingers.

Berry jerked upright as though waking from a nightmare. A coughing fit wracked her small frame. With each new breath, Berry's wings unfolded. Wherever wilt once creased Berry's wings, gold now shone like metal veins cast in crystal. Her eyes fluttered open. "Where am I?"

"Thank you, Meiling," Remilia whispered. "But next time, ask first."

Meiling cried as she crushed Remilia in a bear hug. The guardswoman wiped away the tears flowing down her cheeks.

Cheers filled the Scarlet Devil Mansion. A kaleidoscope of butterfly-winged maids swarmed Berry, tugging at her gold-streaked wings. Patchouli squeezed her way through the crowd towards her desk. Lady Yuyuko whistled, and the sea of fairies parted, letting the sages and the alchemist attend to Berry's five sisters.

As Master Kaku picked up the next dose of ginseng cure, she turned to Yukari. "I win."

* * *

_Master Kaku dropped into a rock cell hewn out underneath her_ yaodong's _shrine room. She ran her fingers around a mural of the eight trigrams until she found three unbroken lines, the sign of heaven. Her hairpin's chisel point pierced the stone carving. The sign of heaven, along with the wall, vanished into the air, revealing a hidden vault._

_"Why am I here?" A misty cloud rose from the mosaic floor, solidifying into the form of Lady Tojiko of the Soga clan._

_Opening a wooden curio box inside the vault, Master Kaku removed two vials. As she examined one filled with a milky fluid, the Azurine Hermit smiled. "If this works, I can craft a new body for you."_

_"Don't bother. I'm happy just as I am." The specter floated into the air and twirled around. "But if your pretty new friend isn't careful, well, I always wanted to be a redhead."_

_"Bell's off limits. How about the Fujiwara girl?"_

_"I'd rather possess a frog. But if it would let me spit in her grandfather's eye one more time…" The air around Lady Tojiko sparked as the specter furled her brow. "It would take too long to groom her to an acceptable standard."_

_Master Kaku held vial of golden liqueur to the sunlight reflected from the shrine room above. She waved towards a bundle of fine jade-colored silk on a lacquered table near the specter. "Perhaps you might accept a more suitable gift?"_

_Lady Tojiko ran her hand along the cloth. "If I was serious about doing the job you're paying me for, I'd keep you away from Yoshika."_

_"There's no need to be unkind." Master Kaku slid her hairpin through her looped braids. The trigram of heaven appeared on the mural once more. "How is my darling, anyway?"_

_Lady Tojiko untied the bundle and wrapped the silk robe around her shoulders. "She's waiting. If I were her, I would have left you centuries ago." She grabbed Master Kaku under her arms and flew out of the underground chamber and through an open window, widened momentarily by the Azurine Hermit's hairpin treasure._

_Master Kaku landed next to a bed and smiled down upon the body wrapped up in sheets and a paper charm._

_Yoshika Miyako was not so much ageless as she was well-preserved. Her skin, stretched like parchment over her bones, held a greying necrotic pallor, yet the undead woman still radiated a smile. "Hello, master, will this hurt?"_

_Master Kaku choked back a grimace. "I don't know. Do you still_ — _"_

_Yoshika nodded and pointed a desiccated finger at Lady Tojiko. "As long as she didn't prepare the cure." Lady Tojiko crossed her arms and settled by Yoshika's head. "It's not more mercury, is it?"_

_"I've got something different. An aqueous solution of activated Philosopher's Stone, followed by concentrated ginseng extract. One to restore your body, the other to heal it. Be kind to Lady Tojiko; she will make sure your soul doesn't escape," Master Kaku said._

_"I'm ready." Yoshika reached up and grabbed her master's hand._

_Lady Tojiko held the undead woman's head in her hands while Master Kaku lifted the paper ward from Yoshika's forehead. The Azurine Hermit held the liqueur vial to her servant's lips and poured the golden liquid into her mouth._

_Yoshika swallowed and shivered as a fever took her. For the first time since her death, she sweated, until she laid in a growing puddle of quicksilver._

_"Is she a_ jiang shii _or a metal golem?" Lady Tojiko said. The shade inched her hands away from the rolling beads of mercury._

_"The Taoist masters sought immortality using cinnabar and mercury. Now I know that the metal only eliminates decay by making everything around it too toxic for life. I wish I learned this sooner." Master Kaku watched as Yoshika's flesh lost its papery texture. "If my darling is to live again, I have to purge the mercury from her."_

_As the hours passed, Master Kaku toweled away every liquid metal droplet that fell as the Elixir of Life perfected the balance of the elements inside Yoshika. Occasionally, Lady Tojiko lifted Yoshika off the bed so Master Kaku could strip away the quicksilver soiled bedding and replace the sheets._

_With one last tremor, Yoshika fell still. Biting her lip, Master Kaku poured the milky ginseng into Yoshika's mouth and waited, watching for the first rosy bloom of life in her servant's cheeks._

* * *

**Author's afterward:**

To those who have helped edit and comment on the drafts of these four chapters, many of whom I have lamentably forgotten in the long delay, thank you. Your help has been appreciated.

To the readers who stuck with this story through the long wait, thank you and I hope this has been worth the wait.

* * *

**Two months later…**

Mr. Kirisame sat at the corner table of the Wandering Eye saloon and nursed a glass of water. With reverence, he placed a leather-bound journal on a placemat and opened it. A page of stationery tucked inside the book unfolded, revealing lines of flowery cursive letters. The widower smoothed the letter onto the table. As his throat dried, he sipped his drink. Beer would have been preferable, or any flavor besides sulfurous spring water, but he needed unclouded wits to translate Patchouli Knowledge's scholarly English into plainspoken Japanese.

He glanced through the bottom of his glass and paused. Blocky _katakana_ characters appeared above each line of loops and whorls. Moving the glass away from the page made the translation vanish. The characters reappeared whenever the mug hovered over the letter. Mr. Kirisame turned to a blank page in his journal, and, with a pen pulled from a belt pouch, he copied the translation.

A dozen summarized accounts of European relic hunters spilled over into the margins and the back of the journal's page. He found the customs strange _–_ why would grown men shrink in terror from pork?–but civilized men half a world away trafficked in the bodies of dead saints. Fortunately, the accounts agreed on one key point: whenever disturbed, the bones of the holy gave off a sweet soothing fragrance that filled the surrounding countryside.

For a thousand years, the _Star Lotus_ palanquin ship held the relics of Abbess Hijiri during her imprisonment under Youkai Mountain. Since the ship resurfaced, a hundred treasure hunters poured over the countryside in search of its gold. Let the others fuss over maps and dowsing rods, Mr. Kirisame would follow his nose to the missing treasure room of the Myouren Temple.

The merchant folded the letter and slipped it inside the journal as a bookmark. None of the relic hunters' writings mentioned what the holy perfume smelled like. However, all agreed that the scent was instantly identifiable, like temple incense or the sweet fragrances of the Celestial maidens sitting nearby.

The widower shook his head as a sudden waft of prickly pear stood out above the perfumes. The forwardness of cactus was unmistakable. Someone did not want to sleep alone tonight.

Fortunately for Mr. Kirisame's planning, the wedding band he still wore on his finger kept the fair haired Celestials with their flowing locks at bay. For all their desire to trade heavenly paradise for earthly comfort, none of the ethereal maidens willingly trampled the bonds of matrimony. Without the ring, a widower merchant of modest success and a glimmer of character would find himself paraded around town by the heavenly beauty who wrapped herself around his arm. While there were a myriad less pleasant ways to spend an evening, Mr. Kirisame chased another trophy.

He turned a page and scowled. Most of his travel checklist remained untouched by tally marks. Despite Moriya's booming popularity, its stores traded solely in pleasures, votives, and indulgences. To meet the demands of his schedule, Mr. Kirisame would need to scavenge supplies from abandoned mountain campsites along his route. Heading back home to the Human Village for cordage and other provisions would keep him away from his shop for too long.

An hourglass silhouette crossed in front of the _kappa_ -wrought gas lamp. "Is this seat taken?" the woman purred.

Mr. Kirisame covered a coaster on the table with his left hand and drummed his ring finger against the corkwood square.

Adjusting her crown of braids, the straw blonde slid onto a stool across the table. Mr. Kirisame peered over the rims of his glasses. His merchant's eye settled upon the young woman's dress. Indigo cotton, hand sewn, although not in the running _sashiko_ stitch ubiquitous throughout Gensokyo. Quality tailoring, but not near the same level as the simplest of Alice Margatroid's evening gowns. Too pricey for the Celestial maidens around him, but he could sell a fashion line of its like in the Human Village, if he could negotiate a deal with the seamstress.

"What are you reading?" She reached for the book in his hand.

"My travel journal." The book vanished into the rucksack at Mr. Kirisame's feet.

"Really?" The young woman dimpled prettily. She leaned over the table and lowered her voice. "The last treasure hunter that came through here caused quite a stir. But he wasn't as seasoned as you."

Mr. Kirisame rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands in front of his mouth. "What do you want?"

The blonde licked her lips. Flashing her fangs, Silk said, "I can get you past the _tengu_ patrols and into Youkai Mountain."


End file.
